Urgent Action Alert, 2/10/99
  Hope for Africa
  Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Program

  The House International Relations Committee will vote on the African Growth
  and Opportunity Act ("NAFTA for Africa") tomorrow, February 11.  Please call
  your representative if they appear on the following list and urge them to
  vote "no."  Instead, urge them to support the HOPE for Africa Act, sponsored
  by Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.  Dial 202-224-3121 for the capitol switchboard.

  Key "swing" votes on International Relations:

  Gary Ackerman (D-NY)
  Joseph Crowley (D-NY)
  Ben Gilman (R-NY)
  Alcee Hastings (D-FL)
  Earl Hilliard (D-AL)
  Joe Hoeffel (D-PA)
  Barbara Lee (D-CA)
  Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)
  Carrie Meeks (D-FL)
  Steve Rothman (D-NJ)
  Robert Wexler (D-FL)

  Letter from Carl Pope follows.

  Dan Seligman
  Responsible Trade Program Director
  202-675-2387

                                                      February 10, 1999

                         Don't Trade Away Africa's Environment
         Oppose the African Growth and Opportunity Act ("NAFTA for Africa")
                            Support the HOPE for Africa Act

  Dear Representative:

         On behalf of the Sierra Club's more than half-million members, I urge
  you to oppose the  African Growth and Opportunity Act ("NAFTA for Africa")
  and to support the HOPE for Africa Act instead.  Last fall Congress defeated
  fast track legislation as the first step toward forging a new, progressive
  trade policy that would guarantee protections for working families and the
  environment alongside any new trading privileges for business.  The NAFTA for
  Africa represents the failed status quo trade policy that has lost the
  support of the American people and was rejected last fall with the defeat of
  fast track.  The HOPE for Africa Act represents the first, bold step toward
  creating a new, progressive trade policy for the twenty-first century.

         The NAFTA for Africa would pressure African countries into handing
  over their minerals, oil, and timber to transnational corporations by
  threatening to withdraw the low tariffs now granted for African exports to
  the United States under the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).
  Without strong environmental and labor standards, increased foreign
  investment by transnational oil, mining, and logging companies would destroy
  the natural resources -- the farmland, pure water, and forests -- that the
  vast majority of Africans depend on for sustainable development.

         The NAFTA for Africa would:

         * encourage the kind of irresponsible and unaccountable investment
  represented by Royal Dutch Shell's oil operations in Nigeria's Ogoniland.
  Shell has polluted the land and water, destroying Ogoni farmland and
  spreading disease, while propping up the country's military dictatorship with
  oil revenues.  The NAFTA for Africa would merely spur investment by foreign
  mining and oil companies that have already displaced thousands from their
  homes without recourse to law, ignored Africa's weak environmental laws, and
  polluted the air, soil, and water with mine wastes, mercury, and cyanide.

         * increase tropical deforestation by foreign logging companies in
  Central Africa, where deforestation rates already exceed those of Brazil.  In
  addition to destroying forests that help to curb global warming and provide
  clean water to Africa's farms and cities, industrial logging could expose the
  African people to terrible disease risks.  According to The New York Times,
  the deadly Ebola virus was recently unleashed in Zaire and Gabon after
  foreign logging companies cut their way into untouched, primary forests,
  exposing humans to the forest animals that harbor the disease.

         * harm Africa's ability to benefit from new foreign investment by
  requiring cuts in corporate taxes and government spending.  With few options
  for taxes to support needed public services, such essentials as public health
  and education would almost certainly be slashed.

         In contrast, the HOPE for Africa Act would offer Africa a partnership
  for equitable and sustainable development that could serve as a model for a
  new, progressive American trade policy.  In place of the NAFTA for Africa's
  meager trade benefits, HOPE for Africa would open the US market to the wide
  variety of goods listed under the Lome Treaty in which the US is not a
  competitor, would grant new access for African textiles and apparel while
  protecting the rights of workers and the environment, and would not set
  onerous, new conditions for continued GSP preferences.

         In addition, HOPE for Africa would:

         * provide comprehensive relief of Africa's crushing burden of $230
  billion in foreign debt.  Debt relief would allow Africa to re-direct its own
  resources toward priority development, health, education, and environmental
  needs.  And debt relief would reduce the enormous pressure to recklessly
  exploit and export the region's rapidly shrinking natural resources.

         * provide adequate foreign assistance through the Development Fund for
  Africa and through the US Agency for International Development.  Hope for
  Africa requires that such assistance be spent in consultation with the
  intended beneficiaries, the African people, and would be directed toward
  education, micro-credit, health, environmental protection, and other priority
  goals.

         * ensure that foreign corporations operating in Africa adhere to
  internationally recognized labor rights and to developed country
  environmental standards.   Hope for Africa would give US citizens access to
  US courts to enforce these obligations.

         The Hope for Africa Act offers the opportunity to launch a new,
  progressive trade policy in partnership with the African people that promotes
  equitable and sustainable development for all.   The NAFTA for Africa offers
  only more of the same, failed policies of the past.   We urge you to support
  the Hope for Africa Act and to reject the NAFTA for Africa.


                                                 Sincerely,



                                                 Carl Pope
                                                 Executive Director

Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

thankx2wheeler:

1.  1998 Climate Disasters Top Entire 80s Decade
2.  New Pimentel Study: LIFE ON EARTH IS KILLING US
3.  Healing Our World: Weekly Comment By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
     What's Extreme? **************

----------------------------------------------------------------------

1998 Climate Disasters Top Entire 80s Decade

WASHINGTON, DC, December 22, 1998 (ENS) - 1998 has already set a new record
for economic losses from weather-related disasters even though only 11
months have passed. Preliminary estimates by the research group Worldwatch
Institute show storms, floods, droughts, and fires caused at least $89
billion in economic losses around the world so far this year.

The 1998 figure is a 48 percent increase over the previous record of $60
billion in 1996. It far exceeds the $55 billion in losses for the entire
decade of the 1980s. During the first three quarters of 1998, the U.S.
insurance industry alone had weather-related claims of more than $8 billion
- three times the in 1997.

This year's weather-related disasters have killed an estimated 32,000
people. Another 300 million - more than the population of the United States
- have been displaced from their homes or forced to resettle because of
extreme weather events in 1998.

Janet Abramovitz and Seth Dunn point out in their Worldwatch report that
human activities are at least partially responsible for some of the most
damaging weather-related events of 1998. Deforestation has left many steep
hillsides bare, causing rainfall to run quickly into rivers rather than
being absorbed, and often leading to devastating landslides and floods. At
the same time, growing population pressures have led many people to settle
on vulnerable flood plains and hillsides. While meteorologists connect some
of the 1998 disasters to El Ni=F1o and its aftermath, no previous El Ni=F1o=
  has
resulted in such devastating consequences.

1998'S MOST COSTLY DISASTERS

Hurricane Mitch, the deadliest Atlantic storm in 200 years, caused an
estimated 11,000 deaths in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
Preliminary damage estimates are $4 billion in Honduras and $1 billion in
Nicaragua.

Mitch hit a region that was ecologically vulnerable, the Worldwatch report
said. Central American nations have some of the highest rates of
deforestation in the world - losing some two to four percent of their
remaining forest cover each year. Honduras alone had already lost half of
its forests. Just a few months ago, fires burned about 11,000 square
kilometres (4,247 square miles) in the region. When Mitch struck, denuded
hillsides washed away, taking homes, farms, roads, and bridges with them.

The costliest disaster of 1998 was the flooding of China's Yangtze River,
which resulted in 3,700 deaths, dislocated 223 million people, inundated 25
million hectares of cropland, and cost $30 billion. Chinese government
officials initially denied that the Yangtze floods were anything but
natural, but the State Council has now recognized the human factor. It has
banned logging in the upper Yangtze watershed, prohibited additional land
reclamation projects in the river's flood plain, and earmarked $2 billion
to reforest the watershed.

Bangladesh suffered its most extensive flood of the century this summer.
Two-thirds of this low-lying nation at the mouth of the Ganges and
Brahmaputra rivers was inundated for months, 30 million were left
temporarily homeless, 10,000 miles of roads were heavily damaged, and the
rice harvest was reduced by two million tons. Damage estimates exceed $3.4
billion.

Logging upriver in the Himalayas of northern India and Nepal made the
Bangladesh floods worse, as did the fact that the region's rivers and
floodplains have been filled with silt and constricted by development.
Climate change and rising sea levels are projected to make Bangladesh even
more vulnerable to flooding in the future.

An ice storm in Canada and New England cost $2.5 billion in January,
bringing down thousands of miles of power lines and wiping out the sugar
maple industry in some areas. Floods in Turkey in June caused $2 billion in
damages, and floods in Argentina and Paraguay cost $2.5 billion. Some
10,000 people were killed by a cyclone in India in June, while vast fires
in Siberia burned over 12 million square kilometres (3 million acres) of
forest.

HUMAN DEMANDS UNDERMINE NATURAL PROTECTIONS

The loss of forests and wetlands, which normally intercept rainfall and
allow it to be absorbed by the soil, permits water to rush across the land,
carrying valuable topsoil with it. As the runoff races across deforested
land, it causes floods and landslides with the strength to wipe out roads,
farms, and fisheries far downstream.

Brazilian fires raged out of control.

The lack of trees allows the soil to dry out more quickly. The
record-breaking fires in Indonesia and Brazil in 1997 and 1998 occurred in
tropical forests that are normally too moist to burn. But when fragmented
by logging and agricultural clearing, these forests dried out to the point
where deliberately set fires were able to spread quickly out of control.
Fire claimed over 52,000 square kilometres (20,007 square miles) in Brazil
and 20,000 square kilometres (7,722 square miles) in Indonesia. The
economic toll in Indonesia was estimated at $4.4 billion.

The pressures of population growth and economic instability complicate
efforts to control harmful development. Brazil, for example, is under heavy
pressure to reduce its budget deficit and has cut back on its already
minimal efforts to control logging and mining in the Amazon, the Worldwatch
authors report.

The worst may be yet to come. Accelerated climate change is projected by
scientists in the coming decades, due to the failure to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions. This is likely to lead to more severe storms, floods, and
droughts in many regions.

Munich Re, one of the world's leading insurance companies, issued a recent
report suggesting that in the years ahead, large areas of the world,
including the southeastern United States may become virtually uninsurable.

=A9 Environment News Service (ENS) 1998. All Rights Reserved.

*************************************************

New Pimentel Study: LIFE ON EARTH IS KILLING US

(ENN) Life on Earth is killing us concludes a Cornell University study of
population trends, climate change, increasing pollution and emerging
diseases.

An estimated 40 percent of deaths around the world can now be attributed to
various environmental factors, especially organic and chemical pollutants,
according to an article published in the October issue of the journal
BioScience.

"More and more of us are living in crowded urban ecosystems that are ideal
for the resurgence of old diseases and the development of new diseases,"
said David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agricultural sciences at
Cornell and lead author of the report, titled "Ecology of Increasing
Disease: Population Growth and Environmental Degradation."

"We humans are further stressed -- and disease prevalence is worsened -- by
widespread malnutrition and the unprecedented increase in air, water and
soil pollutants," he said.

Global climate change will make matters even worse for humans and "better"
for disease, the Cornell study predicts. Increased heat favors most human
diseases, as well as the diseases and pests of food crops, and the coming
century will see masses of weakened "environmental refugees" fleeing their
home areas in a desperate search for food, the researchers said.

The disease-ecology analysis was performed by a team of 11 graduate student
researchers who gathered data from a variety of sources, such as the World
Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, as well as previous studies at Cornell and other universities.
Their findings span a planet made less habitable by human habitation:

-- Each year, air pollutants adversely affect the health of 4 to 5 billion
people worldwide. An expanding world population is burning more fossil
fuels, emitting more industrial chemicals and driving more automobiles. The
number of automobiles is increasing three times faster than the rate of
population growth.

-- The snail-borne disease schistosomiasis causes an estimated 1 million
deaths annually and is expanding its range as human activities provide more
suitable habitats in contaminated fresh water. Following construction in
1968 of Egypt's Aswan High Dam and associated irrigation systems,
prevalence of the Schistosoma mansoni organism in humans in the region
increased from five percent to 77 percent.

-- Of the 80,000 pesticides and other chemicals in use today, 10 percent
are recognized as carcinogens. Cancer-related deaths in the United States
increased from 331,000 in 1970 to 521,000 in 1992, with as estimated 30,000
deaths attributed to chemical exposure.

-- Smoke from indoor cooking fires that burn fuelwood and dung is estimated
to cause the death of 4 million children each year worldwide.

-- Lack of sanitary conditions contributes each year to approximately 2
billion diarrhea infections and 4 million deaths, mostly among infants and
young children in developing countries. In the United States, inadequate
sanitation accounts for 940,000 diarrhea infections and about 900 deaths
each year.

-- Dengue fever, spread by mosquitoes that breed in old tires and other
water-holding junk in crowded urban environments, infects an additional 30
million to 60 million people each year.

-- Less than one percent of 500 Chinese cities have clean air. Respiratory
disease is the leading cause of death in China.

-- In China, where tobacco smoking increased from approximately 360 to
nearly 1,800 cigarettes per person per year, males smoke 98 percent of the
cigarettes. However, mortality due to lung cancer is approximately equal in
males and females.

-- Although the use of lead in U.S. gasoline declined since 1985, other
sources inject about 2 billion kilograms of lead into the atmosphere in
this country each year. An estimated 1.7 million children in the United
States have unacceptably high levels of lead in their blood.

-- Production of another gasoline component, the carcinogen benzene that
causes leukemia even at low dosages, rose from 0.5 billion kilograms in the
United States in 1950 to current levels of about 7.5 kilograms per year.

-- The global use of agricultural pesticides rose from about 50 million
kilograms a year in 1945 to current application rates of approximately 2.5
billion kilograms per year. Most modern pesticides are more than 10 times
as toxic to living organisms than those used in the 1950s. The only chance
for relief, the researchers wrote in the BioScience report, comes from
"comprehensive, fair population-control policies combined with effective
environmental management programs. Without international cooperative
efforts," they predicted, "disease prevalence will continue its rapid rise
throughout the world and will diminish the quality of life for all humans."

For more information, contact Roger Segelken, Cornell, (607)255-9736,
email: hrs2@....

Pimentel's new study can be found in the most recent issue of BioScience,
vol 48, no.10. It is entitled "Ecology of Increasing Disease: Population
growth and environmental degradation."

*****************************************

Healing Our World: Weekly Comment By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

What's Extreme? **************

"The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of
extremists we will be...The nation and the world are in dire need of
creative extremists." -- Rev. Martin Luther King

When people learn of my environmental activities, many will ask me what I
think about the efforts of other environmental groups. "They are so
extreme," someone said to me yesterday.

I find it so interesting that small bands of people who want to stop some
defenseless animal from being killed or who want to end the destruction of
the Earth's forests and oceans are considered extremists.

To me, the systematic destruction of the Earth's oceans, forests, and
atmosphere, the killing of animals to obtain furs for the rich, and
children who starve and die in the midst of vast abundance because profit
for few is the top priority is extreme.

Think about your own reactions for a moment to the events listed below that
have occurred in the last few months. What is your gut feeling? Do they
seem extreme?

? The U.S. Army this week launched a massive effort to deliver 200,000
pounds of fish to starving sled dogs throughout Alaska

http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-11/29/152l-112998-idx.html

? Militant anti-vivisectionist Barry Horne is close to starving himself to
death in a protest over cruelty to animals. He is currently serving an
18-year sentence for arson attacks on shops.

http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/nov98/1998L-11-23-02.html

? A Greenpeace team of international climbers, representing Canada, the
United States, Germany and Australia hung a 60 foot high banner over
Niagara Falls protesting the destruction of ancient forests in North
America. http://www.greenpeace.org/~forests/

? Julia Hill has spent nearly a year 180 feet about the ground in a redwood
tree. She is calling for an end to the destruction of the old growth
forests. http://www.lunatree.org/default.htm

Now look at the activities below that have occurred recently. What is your
gut reaction to them? Do they seem extreme? Or do they seem to be just
progress?

? Thousands of sea birds are dying from an oil spill in the North Sea.
Animal welfare experts are warning that hundreds of thousands more are at
risk. http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/nov98/1998L-11-23-04.html

? According to a 1997 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council,
almost half of marine fish in U.S. waters are overfished and globally, 70
percent of marine fish fully fished or overfished.
http://www.nrdc.org/brie/fish.html

? All mining activities in the U.S. are governed by a law written in 1872!
Mining companies extract about $2-3 billion worth of minerals from public
lands every year, but they don't pay a penny in royalties under the 1872
law. In addition, the law allows companies to purchase public lands for no
more than $5 an acre, a price based on 1872 land values.
http://www.nrdc.org/brie/mining.html

? The Playa Vista development in Southern California will, when completed,
have destroyed 1,000 acres of wetland, build 13,000 condos, added 6 million
square feet of office space, and will generate an additional 10 tons of air
pollution per DAY. http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/7937/

? The Chevron refinery, the Los Angeles International Airport, and the Arco
refinery are the largest industrial polluters in the Los Angeles area.
http://www.nrdc.org/find/trairpov.html

Most of us would classify the activist actions in the first list as extreme
while the second list just represents progress and the quest for a better
life. This is not a natural, instinctive classification. It is one that has
been carefully developed, even bred, in us for the last two hundred years
in the U.S. by those who are interested only in short-term gain.

Could anyone interested in a humane, sustainable future with abundance for
all support the second list? The fundamental assumptions that we grew up
with and live with today may ALL need to be thrown out. We need new
assumptions, values, and ethics.

The American Heritage=AE Dictionary of the English Language defines the word
extreme to mean "extending far beyond the norm." It is shocking to me,
especially as the time of year is at hand when we contemplate giving
thanks, that we can define toxic pollution and the resulting suffering and
cruelty to be the "norm."

Think about all the things we do each day that we call normal and routine.
All the driving, consuming, wasting, and throwing away we do are just a
part of just another day. Look at what a routine day in the U.S. brings:

? 200,000 tons of edible food is thrown out ? we use 313 million gallons of
fuel - enough to drain 26 tractor-trailer trucks every minute ? 18 million
tons of raw materials are taken from the Earth ? 6.8 billion gallons of
drinking water is used to flush toilets ? 1 million bushels of litter is
thrown out of car windows ? 10,000 minks are added to the closets and coat
racks of the wealthy ? $200 million is spent on advertising ? $100 million
board feet of wood is sawed ? 250,000 tons of steel is used ? 187,000 tons
of paper is used

What if we all decide that, in the coming year, we will work hard to define
a new "norm" for us all? What if a normal day became driving as little as
we can, buying nothing other than what we need to survive, not watching TV,
not throwing anything out, and doing something to help someone who has
nothing?

Now that would be something to give thanks for.

To live content with small means, To seek elegance rather than luxury, and
refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy,
not rich, to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen
to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart, to bear all
cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never - in a word, to
let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common.
This is to be my symphony.

-- William Ellery Channing

RESOURCES

Create a new bookmark file with links to sites that bring people together
on issues you care about. Visit those sites once per week. Commit yourself
to writing one letter, e-mail message, or making one phone call per week
about an issue that is important to you. At the end of the next year, you
will have written 52 letters! Build your activist bookmark file from some
of the links below:

1. Keep an eye on what companies are being boycotted at the Boycott Action
News at http://www.coopamerica.org/Boycotts/bancover.htm

2. Keep an eye on activism world wide at Macrocosm at=
  http://www.macronet.org/

3. The Video Project has powerful, affordable videos for all ages on the
social and environmental issues of the day. They also have a program where
they give free videos to schools. Visit them at
http://www.videoproject.org/videoproject/index.html

4. Visit the World Health Organization at http://www.who.int/

5. Visit Zero Population Growth for info on the issues of population at
http://www.zpg.org/

6. Keep track of the last stands of old growth forest from Earth First! at

http://www.enviroweb.org/headwaters-ef/about_hw-ef.html

7. For a different angle on humane issues, visit Psychologists for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals at http://www.psyeta.org/

8. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting will help you stay ahead of the media
at http://www.fair.org/

9. The Media Foundation and Adbusters magazine will help you reduce
consumerism at http://www.adbusters.org./main/index.html

10. The Witness to the Future site at
http://www.witnesstothefuture.com/main.html will involve you in activism.

11. The Nature Conservancy protects the world's lands by buying them!
Support them at http://www.tnc.org/

12. The U.S. Army School of the Americas trains assassins and brutal world
leaders. Learn about this at http://www.soaw.org/

13. Stay in touch with Project Underground for information on little known
issues at http://www.moles.org/ProjectUnderground/index1.html

14. Learn about vegetarianism through the World Guide to Vegetarianism at
http://www.veg.org/veg/Guide/USA/index.html

15. Track environmental health issues from Physicians for Social
Responsibility at http://www.psr.org/index.html

16. Keep your eye on pesticide use through the Pesticide Action Network at
http://www.panna.org/panna/

17. Support farm workers through http://www.ufw.org/

18. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them.
Write them often about issues that matter to you. If you know your Zip
code, you can find them at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html
or you can search by state at

http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html

19. Learn about the issues. Seek out books on the subject. A good source
for used (and new) books is Powell's Bookstore in Portland, Oregon at

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/associate?assoc_id=3D212 where you will find=
  a
wonderful alternative to the massive chain bookstores taking over the
market.

[Jackie Giuliano, Ph.D., can be found in Venice, California, working hard
to be extreme. He is a Professor of Environmental Studies for Antioch
University, Los Angeles, and the University of Phoenix Southern California
Campuses. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at
jackie@... and visit his web site at
http://www.deepteaching.com]

=A9 Environment News Service (ENS) 1998. All Rights Reserved.
-----------------------
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only. For more information go to:=20
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
-----------------------

*********************************************************

"Building more prisons to address crime is like building more graveyards to
address a fatal disease." -Robert Gangi, Executive Director,  Correctional
Association of New York..... Wheeler <wheeler@...> ICQ Me! 18145834;
Free Mumia Abu Jamal!; http://www.mumia.org  Save Albert Woodfox!
http://www.prisonactivist.org ; Visit: Ahimsa:
http://members.xoom.com/AhimsaZine  <-all things
anarchopacifist; that funky poetic anarchist:
http://members.xoom.com/AnarchoPoet <-poetry, art, politics, philosophy,
SMASH CAPITALISM! Webring; The Other Side:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dungeon/8942/ <-Has my Divine Right
Scenario


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Peace!

Rob,             Sector Air Raid Warden at Rob's Place

            /RENEGADE/ newsletter:  http://fornits.com/renegade/
          DEDICATED TO SPIRIT, TRUTH, PEACE, JUSTICE, AND FREEDOM
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                        Robert Cherwink <rc@...>
                            Usenet: alt.thebird

     WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION  -- Ethiopian Proverb

To: Select List <rc@...>
From: Robert Cherwink <rc@...>
Subject: /RENEGADE/ Update 990210: Articles posted to /RENEGADE/  in
   the last 2 weeks
Cc: damn@..., ba-activist@..., bay_area_activist@ONElist.com,
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Please forward and post indescriminately!

Rob,       Sector Air Raid Warden at Rob's Place

      /RENEGADE/ newsletter:  http://fornits.com/renegade/
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Bay_Area_Activist list: http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/829.htm
      Chat at http://jupiter.beseen.com/chat/rooms/i/1055/

WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION  -- Ethiopian Proverb

P.S. [Sorry:  no progress on saving the pheonix theater, or making the
sonoma valley skatepark happen as of yet]

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1.  Articles posted to /RENEGADE/ in the last 2 weeks
2.  Additional articles yet to be indexed
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5.  KEY SEARCHES at /RENEGADE/

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1.  Articles posted to /RENEGADE/ in the last 2 weeks
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Nuclear Information and Resource Service (Wed 27 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2377.htm

Good Y2K links (Wed 27 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2378.htm

Y2K and nuclear power info at NIRS (Wed 27 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2379.htm

FAIR-L ACTION ALERT Ask Your Local Op-Ed Editor to Publish (Wed 27 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2381.htm

990127 imap index for Jan 27 (Thu 28 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2383.htm

GARY WEBB interview on Crack-Contra CIA scandal (Thu 28 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2384.htm

BOOK Whiteout The CIA Drugs and the Press (Thu 28 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2385.htm

LINCOLN PULP AND PAPER CAMPAIGN UPDATE - Late January 1999 (Thu 28
Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2386.htm

COMMENT Re Plans for Emergency Military Powers and Domestic (Thu 28 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2387.htm

International Day of Protest to Free Leonard Peltier (Fri 29 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2388.htm

990129 imap index for Jan 29 (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2389.htm

990128 imap index for Jan 28 (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2390.htm

Headwaters Update 990129 CDF blocks PL logging in Freshwater (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2391.htm

ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN Number 195 (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2392.htm

ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN Number 196 (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2393.htm

ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN Number 197 (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2394.htm

ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN Number 198 (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2395.htm

ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN Number 199 (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2396.htm

ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN Number 200 (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2397.htm

re Minnehaha protest (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2398.htm

The plan for massive military mobilization (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2399.htm

Black Farmers Human Rights Violated (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2400.htm

US Says it Collected Iraq Intelligence Via UNSCOM (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2401.htm

MOBILIZE 1 10 99 -MAJ Benefit Oakland Controversy (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2402.htm

EXPANDING EMPIRE (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2403.htm

The plan for massive military mobilization (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2404.htm

27 shots fired at sleeping woman Riverside CA (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2405.htm

USA Incarceration Rate Another Kind of Crime (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2406.htm

STOP CASSINI 86 January 28th 1999 (Sat 30 Jan 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2407.htm

STOP CASSINI 87 - 16th Happy Symposium on the wonderful uses (Tue 2 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2408.htm

STOP CASSINI 88 - Responses to newsletter 87 (Tue 2 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2409.htm

STOP CASSINI 89 - A cause worthy of Y2K - PLEASE READ THIS (Tue 2 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2410.htm

990130 imap index for Jan 30 (Tue 2 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2411.htm

990131 imap index for Jan 31 (Tue 2 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2412.htm

Re STOP CASSINI 85 (Tue 2 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2413.htm

Re Congress to attack the internet Sat 2 Jan 99 (Tue 2 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2414.htm

Re STOP CASSINI 85 (Tue 2 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2415.htm

Y2k conference in Oakland (Tue 2 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2416.htm

film where the green ants dream (Wed 3 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2417.htm

990201 imap index for Feb 1 (Wed 3 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2418.htm

990202 imap index for Feb 2 (Wed 3 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2419.htm

West Antarctic Ice Sheet at point of melting (Wed 3 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2420.htm

Greenpeace - Global Warming Early Action Bill Protects the (Wed 3 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2421.htm

Clinton s Exec Order to fight Invasive Species (Wed 3 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2422.htm

film the last wave (Wed 3 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2423.htm

Re film where the green ants dream (Wed 3 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2424.htm

the year of living dangerously (Thu 4 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2425.htm

MAI Leaked document reveals EU intention to push MAI-like (Thu 4 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2426.htm

BMD List Iraq SitzKrieg SitRep (Thu 4 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2427.htm

BMD List Red China Roundup (Thu 4 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2428.htm

Eyes Watching Forest (Thu 4 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2429.htm

Re Observer Article was CASSINI NoFlyby Alert (Thu 4 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2430.htm

PIE BBB strikes - Mayor Pied in Eugene Oregon U S A (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2431.htm

Y2K Around the Bay - SF Bay Area Feb 99 Conference (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2432.htm

Judi Bari - Revolutionary Ecology (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2433.htm

HEADWATERS EPIC Update and Action Alert The Environmental (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2434.htm

990205 imap index for Feb 5 (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2435.htm

990204 imap index for Feb 4 (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2436.htm

990203 imap index for Feb 3 (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2437.htm

FAIR-L Press Release Extra s Report on Steven Emerson (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2438.htm

FAIR-L ACTION ALERT MSNBC s New Lineup Same Old (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2439.htm

Rachel 636 Dioxins--The View from Europe (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2440.htm

Rachel 635 Parkinson s (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2441.htm

STOP CASSINI 91 Safety is relative now I guess (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2442.htm

STOP CASSINI 90 Galileo goes into safe mode (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2443.htm

THE DIVERTED LEFT - By Howard Zinn (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2444.htm

Headwaters Update 990204 State seeks bulletproof side (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2445.htm

CIABASE (Sat 6 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2446.htm

990206 imap index for Feb 6 (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2447.htm

The Internet Anti-Fascist Friday 29 Jan 99 -- 3 09 216 (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2448.htm

The Internet Anti-Fascist Tuesday 2 Feb 99 -- 3 10 217 (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2449.htm

The Internet Anti-Fascist Friday 5 Feb 99 -- 3 11 220 (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2450.htm

AFIB Report on Benefit Concert for Mumia Abu-Jamal (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2451.htm

ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN Number 201 (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2452.htm

AFIB Jew Haters & Red-Baiters Canadian League of Rights (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2453.htm

ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN Number 202 (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2454.htm

Upcoming Enviromentalist Conferences (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2455.htm

STARR-WARS (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2456.htm

Re Poem for the Millenium (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2457.htm

Congress (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2458.htm

Indigenous Black Australians Defend Water Life (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2459.htm

990207 imap index for Feb 7 (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2460.htm

DAMN 26-JAN-1999 Strike cuts Canada grain loading at (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2461.htm

DAMN 26-JAN-1999 Cambodian Teachers Stay Away from Classes (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2462.htm

DAMN Anarchy in the U K iso-8859-1 Q 8BOxford (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2463.htm

DAMN Buffalo Nations Activists Block Slaughter of Buffalo in (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2464.htm

DAMN 26-JAN-1999 Korean LG Semicon workers walk out (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2465.htm

DAMN 25-JAN-1999 J P AOKI workers strike in the Philippines (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2466.htm

DAMN 27-JAN-1999 Belarusian workers protest (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2467.htm

DAMN 29-JAN-1999 Russian Teachers strike (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2468.htm

DAMN 31-JAN-1999 Cambodia students protest back teachers (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2469.htm

DAMN 01-FEB-1999 Finnish air controllers start strike (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2470.htm

DAMN 29-JAN-1999 Poland gripped by farmers doctors protests (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2471.htm

DAMN 23-JAN-1999 Striking Hotel Workers Trash Hotel Lobby (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2472.htm

DAMN 4-FEB-99 Anti-Nike Demonstration Fallout in Eugene (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2473.htm

DAMN 31-JAN-1999 01-FEB-1999 Duke University students (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2474.htm

DAMN 30-JAN-1999 2 000 protesters demand Indorayon closure (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2475.htm

DAMN 28-JAN-1999 Unions and ITF blockade ship in Chile (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2476.htm

DAMN 02-FEB-1999 Pay strike by Finnish air controllers set (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2477.htm

DAMN 01-FEB-1999 German workers in token strikes nationwide (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2478.htm

DAMN 02-FEB-1999 UK meat inspectors hold one-day strike over (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2479.htm

DAMN 1-FEB-1999 TRIDENT NUCLEAR SUBMARINE DISARMED BY TWO
(Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2480.htm

DAMN 05-FEB-1999 Washington D C Rally to Free Leonard (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2481.htm

DAMN 28-JAN-1999 Nuclear Waste at Bulgarian Reactor Triggers (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2482.htm

DAMN 3-FEB-1999 Road Blockade Protesting New Buffalo Capture (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2483.htm

DAMN 3-FEB-1999 New Strikes in Russian Mines Polish Farmers (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2484.htm

DAMN 02-FEB-1999 Union says Malta port strike indefinite (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2485.htm

Conference on Public Policy Applications of Declassified (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2486.htm

OWC URGENT APPEAL LANDLESS PEASANTS BRAZIL (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2487.htm

ahimsa-zine-staff Additional Internet charges (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2488.htm

Anonymous Web Surfing (Mon 8 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2489.htm

Re Anonymous (Tue 9 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2490.htm

990208 imap index for Feb 8 (Tue 9 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2491.htm

Bird Tells of Fall from Tree-Sit Perch 1 2 (Wed 10 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2492.htm

Bird Tells of Fall from Tree-Sit Perch 2 2 (Wed 10 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2493.htm

GENETICS global anti genetiX (Wed 10 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2494.htm

noam chomsky on the web (Wed 10 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2495.htm

1998 Climate Disasters Top Entire 80s Decade (Wed 10 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2496.htm

990209 imap index for Feb 9 (Wed 10 Feb 99)
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/2497.htm


-------------------------------------------------------------------
2.  Additional articles yet to be indexed
-------------------------------------------------------------------

sent to the fornit / yet to be indexed [that will next happen in tha wee hourz]:

    DAMN: 09-FEB-1999: Thousands of Indonesian workers rally for more  pay
    DAMN: 04-FEB-1999: London underground workers call two-day strike
    DAMN: 09-FEB-1999: American Air Sees More Flight Cancellations
    DAMN: 08-FEB-1999: Finnish air traffic control strike in second week
    Global Crisis Solutions Conference (fwd)
    Dineh - Arizona
    Alert!!! Nuclear Testing
    STOP CASSINI #92
    STOP CASSINI #93
    U.S. Military Conducting TOXIC Biological-Chemical Warfare  Against Civilians
    [HEADWATERS] Luna Tree-sit February Update
    A Case File: CIA and Drugs
    [BMD List] NMD / SBL / SBIRS / ABMT
    990204 CORPORATE WATCH What's New 2/4/99
    rainforest boycott
    Y2K-O: Millennium bug 'could end Wall Street bull run'

-------------------------------------------------------------------
3.  Coming up
-------------------------------------------------------------------

     michael moore on the web


-------------------------------------------------------------------
4.  The Best of /RENEGADE/ [maybe?]
-------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Great Hurwitz Pie Incident
    or: In Defense of Apple Pie BY Al Decker
    http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/archive/105.htm

       MORE PIE ARTICLES!
       http://fornits.com/cgibin/renegade-ice-form.cgi?KEYWORDS=PIE
       http://fornits.com/cgibin/renegade-archive-ice-form.cgi?KEYWORDS=pie

    HURWITZ Beast of the Month - October 1998: A Konformist Special
    Charles Hurwitz, Financial Swindler & Ecological Terrorist
    http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/1603.htm

       huge_thankx2: The Konformist <Robalini@...>
       Email with the phrase, "I NEED 2 KONFORM!",
           to receive a free subscription
       http://www.konformist.com

    Unthanksgiving - [REPOST]: THE REAL FOREIGN DEBT
    http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/1877.htm


-------------------------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------------------------

INDEX OF CURRENT ARTICLES
http://fornits.com/cgibin/renegade-ice-form.cgi?DAYS=100000

SEARCH INDEX OF CURRENT ARTICLES
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Search the Archives for older articles
http://fornits.com/renegade/articles/archive/

Articles Posted in the Last 10 days
http://fornits.com/cgibin/renegade-ice-form.cgi?DAYS=10

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http://fornits.com/cgibin/renegade-ice-form.cgi?KEYWORDS=Forest

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http://fornits.com/cgibin/renegade-ice-form.cgi?KEYWORDS=CIA+and+COCAINE

CIA - FBI
http://fornits.com/cgibin/renegade-ice-form.cgi?KEYWORDS=CIA+or+FBI

CLIMATE CHANGE
http://fornits.com/cgibin/renegade-ice-form.cgi?KEYWORDS=CLIMATE

GREENPEACE
http://fornits.com/cgibin/renegade-ice-form.cgi?KEYWORDS=GREENPEACE

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missile defense and special weapons issues
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PIE ACTION
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Please forward and post indescriminately!

Please note:  Articles at /RENEGADE/ are still split between two
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articles posted before around the first of October '98 - thats why! - sorry
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The most current articles (since around the first of October) are in the
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Peace!

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            /RENEGADE/ newsletter:  http://fornits.com/renegade/
          DEDICATED TO SPIRIT, TRUTH, PEACE, JUSTICE, AND FREEDOM
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                        Robert Cherwink <rc@...>
                            Usenet: alt.thebird

     WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION  -- Ethiopian Proverb


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-----------------------

PART 2

#4 continued


Aggressive federal actions are already underway, including measures to
prevent the entry of invasive species, eradicate invasive species before
establishment, control invasive species once established, and conduct
outreach and education for the general public. These actions include:

o To prevent entry of invasive species, USDA has more than 1300 inspectors
at more than 90 ports of entry inspecting commodities. The inspectors are
assisted in some ports by the Beagle Brigade, a group of dogs trained to
sniff out prohibited agricultural products.

o USDA has prohibited the importation of untreated wood packing material
from China, which has previously carried the Asian long-horned beetle into
the United States - and has proposed extending this ban to other countries.

o The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will build a barrier this spring in
the Chicago Ship Canal, to prevent the spread of invasive species between
the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basins.

o The Interior Department is spending $4.5 million annually to prevent the
spread of the brown tree snake from Guam. The Department of Defense is part
of this effort. Key elements are an extensive control program on Guam,
support for research effort to develop new control measures, and
participation in Oahu's island-wide surveillance and response plan.

o The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA), the Interior
Department, and other federal and state agencies are working to restore the
natural ecology of the South Florida and Everglades ecosystems. As this
massive replumbing gets underway, NOAA and the Interior Department have
made clear that safeguards must be taken to ensure that the new water flows
do not become highways for exotic species to be transported through
Florida's fragile environment.

o NOAA is sponsoring research on new technologies for treatment of ballast
water to reduce the threat of foreign organisms being discharged into U.S.
waters.

o The federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious and
Exotic Weeds collaborated on research and publication of a comprehensive
fact book on invasive plants.


-DOI-

Fact Sheet

Invasive Species Fact Sheet

The Department of the Interior is working to prevent the introduction and
spread of invasive plants and aquatic species in the United States. Bureaus
within the Department of the Interior, including the National Park Service,
Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Geological
Survey, have been working to eradicate invasive species on federal lands
and partnering with state and local organizations to restore ecosystems
with native plants and species.

Invasive species cost our Nation's economy an estimated $123 billion
annually and are second only to habitat destruction in threatening
extinction of native species. Invasive plants and weeds are spreading on
Federal lands at 4,600 acres per day. The Federal agencies are applying
effective and economical strategies now to protect these lands from weed
infestation but more need to be done to prevent the introduction and spread
of invasive species and plants.

President Clinton's budget for fiscal year 2000, proposes an increase of
$12.8 million in funding for the Department of the Interior to combat
invasive species.

Below are some examples of actions being taken to prevent the entry of
invasive species and control efforts by various bureaus within the
Department of the Interior:

The Department of the Interior is a member of the Federal Interagency
Committee for the Management of Noxious and Exotic Weeds which has been
working to develop and help fund partnership projects that result in on-the
ground control of invasive plants. In the first two years the initiative
has funded more than 60 projects matching more than one million federal
dollars on a 2:1 ratio.

The Fish and Wildlife Service in cooperation with the Army Corps of
Engineers this spring will construct a barrier in the Chicago Ship Canal is
to prevent the spread of invasive species between the Great Lakes and the
Mississippi River basins.

Working with the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas,
Oklahoma, and Texas, the Fish and Wildlife Service began implementing a
program in 1998 to prevent the westward spread of zebra mussels on trailed
boasts.

$4.5 million is devoted annually to implement a comprehensive interagency
program to prevent the spread of the brown tree snake and control this pest
on Guam.

The National Park Service (NPS) is developing a computer-based decision
support system to help land managers determine how invasive plants should
be managed.

Numerous NPS units are serving as nurseries for insect biocontrol agents.
These agents are grown on NPS lands harvested and made available, free of
charge to surrounding landowners interested in establishing biocontrol
agents on their land.

The NPS is using a shared resources approach to manage saltcedar at Lake
Mead National Recreation Area and other surrounding parks. Many parks do
not have the staff or other resources to undertake these projects but
through sharing of these resources with other parks the NPS is able to
control saltcedar in many critical areas.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is working with conservation groups and
the State of California to remove saltcedar in three canyons of the Carrizo
Gorge Wilderness Area. Saltcedar infestations can make water from springs
unavailable to the threatened and endangered Peninsula bighorn sheep.



Executive Order

The Executive Order (EO) directs Federal agencies to use their authorities
to prevent the introduction of invasive species, to control, monitor and to
restore native species. The EO establishes a Federal interagency Invasive
Species Council (Council), co-chaired by the Secretaries of the Interior,
Agriculture, and Commerce and includes State, Treasury, Defense,
Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Council will be
directed to create an invasive species management plan. The Secretary of
the Interior will establish an advisory committee to provide information
and advice for consideration by the Council including recommended plans and
actions at the local, state, regional and ecosystem-based levels to achieve
the goals of the Management Plan. The Council will act in cooperation with
states, tribes, scientific, agricultural organizations, conservation groups
and other stakeholders.

The Council has seven duties: (1) overseeing implementation of the EO; (2)
supporting field-level planning; (3) identifying international
recommendations; (4) creating National Environmental Policy Act guidance;
(5) establishing an impact monitoring network; (6) developing a web-based
information network; (7) preparing a National Invasive Species Management
Plan.

The Management Plan is due within 18 months after the EO is issued and will
be prepared in consultation with various stakeholders at the state and
local levels. The purpose of the EO is to ensure coordination between the
Federal agencies and strengthen the ability to partner with the states and
other organizations. The Management Plan will include detailed goals,
objectives and measures of success and will identify needed personnel and
other resources. The Management Plan will be updated every two years with
an accompanying public report on success in implementation. The first
edition of the Management Plan will review relevant existing programs and
authorities, recommended needed measures, and identify legislative needs.

****** END FWD


Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

Perhaps this could be useful in our battles to fight road incursions into
undisturbed regions. Remember the Port Orford Cedar? This posting has four
items from four sources.

Andy
____________________________________
FWD:

#1

GREENLines, Monday, February 1, 1999 from GREEN, the GrassRoots
Environmental Effectiveness Network, A project of Defenders of Wildlife
(505) 255-5966 or E-mail rfeather@... (c) GREEN/Defenders of
Wildlife 1999

PRESIDENT COMMITS TO FIGHT EXOTIC SPECIES: Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt
announced President Clinton will issue an executive order increasing
federal efforts against the invasion of exotic species into American
ecosystems, according to the 1/27 Boston Globe. A dramatic rise in
sea-shipping is blamed for the increased threat of exotic species. Ballast
water from container ships is dumped into harbors, introducing species
harmful to native wildlife. Chris Bright of the Worldwatch Institute said
exotic species has played a role in 68% of US fish extinctions.
************************************
Maria Sadowski Communications and Fundraising Associate IUCN Species
Survival Commission (SSC) c/o: Brookfield Zoo Brookfield, IL 60513 USA
Tel: 1/708/485-0263 ext. 487 Fax: 1/708/485-6320
Email: msadowski@...
WWW: http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc
************************************


#2

Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1999 07:05:09 EST
To: Aliens-L@...

President Clinton's Executive Order on invasive exotic/alien species
applies to ALL types of exotics -- vertebrates, invertebrates, plants,
disease pathogens, terrestrial and marine ...

The 500 scientists organized by Don Schmitz, Phyllis Windle, Jim Carleton,
et al are to be congratulated for pushing this initiative.

The real test will be how the Executive Order is put to work -- how quickly
the interagency Council begins functioning, how quickly the advisory body
of non-governmental scientists and policy people is appointed and begins
functioning, and how seriously these bodies work together to develop and
achieve enactment of effective programs to exclude, contain, cointrol, or
even eradicate invasive exotic species. The hard scientific -- and
political -- work begins now.

Faith T. Campbell
American Lands Alliance

================================================


#3

Hi All,

I contacted Tim Ahearn at DOI and he tells me that the transcript of the
Executive Order on invasive/exotic alien species will be posted later today
at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

Laura

================================================


#4

The order will soon be available on Westlaw and Lexis, and I can post it,
but its not available yet. The Department of the Interior Press Release,
which appears at http://www.doi.gov/news/990203.html , includes a summary
of the order. A copy of the DOI press release follows.

I hope this is helpful.

Marc

Prof. Marc Miller Emory Law School
1301 Clifton Road Atlanta, GA 30322
404/727-6528
mmiller@...


****

U.S. Department of the Interior

Office of the Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, Feb. 3, 1999

Contact: USDA: Andy Solomon (202) 720-4623 Interior: Tim Ahern (202)
208-5089 Commerce: Matt Stout (202) 482-6090

PRESIDENT CLINTON EXPANDS FEDERAL EFFORT TO COMBAT INVASIVE SPECIES

WASHINGTON - President Clinton today is signing an executive order to
coordinate a federal strategy to address the growing environmental and
economic threat of invasive species, plants and animals that are not native
to ecosystems of the United States.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, and
Commerce Under Secretary James Baker told a news conference that the order
creates an Invasive Species Council. The Council will develop a
comprehensive plan to minimize the economic, ecological, and human health
impacts of invasive species and determine further steps to prevent the
introduction and spread of additional invasive species. The Council, to be
chaired by Glickman, Babbitt, and Commerce Secretary William Daley, will
work in cooperation with a variety of groups - including states, tribes,
scientists, universities, shipping interests, environmental groups and farm
organizations - to combat invasive plants and animals.

"This is a unified, all-out battle against unwanted plant and animal
visitors that threaten to wreak major economic and environmental havoc,"
said Glickman. "Asian long-horned beetles destroy trees. Leafy spurge
reduces the productivity of grazing land by 50 to 75 percent. Zebra mussels
clog water intake pipes, shutting down electrical utilities. These are
serious threats."

"There are a lot of bioinvasive hitchhikers from around the globe and now
is the time to take action," said Babbitt. "The costs to habitats and the
economy are racing out of control. New resources are needed now and this
order will let us accomplish that."

"This executive order is good news for our ongoing fight against the
invasion of marine alien species. The ocean serves as a highway in
transporting these invasive species into U.S. waters," said Baker. "Every
minute, 40,000 gallons of foreign ballast water is dumped into U.S. harbors
- this water contains a multitude of non-indigenous organisms which could
alter or destroy America's natural marine ecosystems."

President Clinton's budget for fiscal year 2000, released Monday, proposes
an increase of more than $28.8 million in funding to combat invasive
species. This includes new funding for combating exotic pests and diseases
as well as accelerating research on habitat restoration and
biologically-based integrated pest management tactics.

Many ecologists believe the spread of exotic species is one of the most
serious, yet least appreciated, threats to biodiversity. Invasive plants
inflict a heavy toll on American agriculture, reducing the quality and
raising the cost of food, feed, and fiber. Experts estimate that invasive
plants already infest over 100 million acres. Three million acres, an area
twice the size of Delaware, is lost of invasive plants each year. The total
economic impact of invasive plants on the U.S. economy is estimated to be
about $123 billion annually. Invasive animal species wreak billions more in
damage to crops and rangeland. Some examples:

o The zebra mussel can shut down electrical utilities by clogging water
intake pipes and threatens to cause an estimated $5 billion in damages by
2002, if unchecked.

o Leafy spurge causes more than $144 million in livestock forage damage
each year in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

o Invading sea lampreys caused the collapse of lake trout and other Great
Lakes fisheries, costing the U.S. and Canada $13 million annually to
control.

o The brown tree snake has caused over 200 snake bites, 1200 electrical
outages and the extinction of most native forest birds on Guam.

o When the Asian long-horned beetle infested Brooklyn, New York, more than
2000 trees had to be destroyed, costing the federal and state government
more than $5 million. A similar infestation now plagues Chicago.

Today's announcements signal an expanded effort to combat invasive species.
The President's order directs federal agencies to use their authority to
prevent the introduction of invasive species and to restore native species.
It directs the new interagency Council to come up with an invasive species
management plan within 18 months.

Federal officials were joined at today's announcement by eminent Harvard
biologist E.O. Wilson. Other scientists who have led calls for stronger
federal action to combat invasive species include James T. Carlton of
Williams College; Don C. Schmitz of the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection; Daniel Simberloff, the Nancy Gore Hunger Professor of
Excellence in Environmental Studies at the University of Tennessee; and
Phyllis N. Windle, author of a Congressional report on invasive species.



continued in part 2

Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 17:32:8
Subject: Greenpeace - Global Warming Early Action Bill: Protects the Big
Polluters, Not the Environment
To: gpusa-pressalerts@...
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Global Warming Early Action Bill: Protects the Big Polluters, Not the
Environment

February 2, 1999, Washington, DC.  A new bill that would give credit to US
companies for voluntarily cutting greenhouse gas emissions would benefit
the big polluters, while producing little or no benefit to the environment
Greenpeace said today.  The Credit for Voluntary Early Action Act (S.
2617), is set to be reintroduced by Senators John Chafee (R-RI), Connie
Mack (R-FL) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) sometime in the coming week.

"While the concept for early action is important, this bill is fatally
flawed. The bill would award credit to corporations that have made paper
cuts rather than real cuts in greenhouse gas pollution," said Gary Cook,
Greenpeace Climate Issues Specialist.

For the full copy of today's release see -
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/media/releases.htm

---
You are currently subscribed to gpusa-pressalerts as: climate@...
To unsubscribe send a blank email to
leave-gpusa-pressalerts-213793M@...

Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

Thanks to Trista Claxon for this!

Ice sheet 'on point of melting'
http://www.press.co.nz/04/99012833.htm
The Press [New Zealand]
January 28, 1999

o McMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA -- The vast Western Antarctic Ice
Sheet is on the point of melting, which could signal a six-metre
rise in sea-levels in less than a century, an influential polar
geologist has warned.

Dr Peter Barrett, of Victoria University, Wellington, told
leading politicians gathered at McMurdo Station that he and other
polar scientists had serious fears that the sheet was on the
point of going but they could not be absolutely certain yet.

"It will be too late to do anything about it when we know for
certain," he told reporters. "We might be at that point now."

Dr Barrett gave his warning to Antarctica's first political
meeting, dubbed the "Ministerial on Ice".

The talks involving Cabinet ministers and officials from 24
countries went into formal session yesterday.

The gathering aimed at highlighting the need to protect the
frozen continent is having a big impact on ministers who have
become conscious of the dangers, paradoxically because it has
been relatively warm at McMurdo Station.

The western sheet covers the eastern side of the Ross Sea, Marie
Byrd Land, the Antarctic Peninsula and the Weddell Sea.

The figure of a six-metre rise in sea levels if the western ice
sheet melts appears to be widely accepted by scientists, although
other researchers have said much of the rise might actually be
due to thermal expansion of the huge volume of water in the
world's oceans, caused by global warming.

Should the entire Antarctic ice sheet melt the oceans would rise
a total of 60 metres.

However, the bigger Eastern Antarctic Ice Sheet is considered
more stable.
========================================================

http://www.itn.co.uk/Britain/brit19990126/012603.htm
ITN's Lawrence McGinty uncovers evidence of global warming

ITN's science editor, Lawrence McGinty , and an ITN camera crew
are just back from a two month visit, where they saw proof that
temperatures on the edges of Antarctica at least, are rising.
Plus: watch reports on the ozone layer and local wildlife in the
Antarctica

They went to the island of Signy, where glaciers are beginning
to melt - a process which in the long term could raise sea levels
catastrophically and where the wildlife is changing, with
relatively warm-weather species advancing and cold-weather ones
in retreat.

They spoke to scientists predicting the imminent break up of the
Larsen ice shelf, possibly within weeks. Their final destination
was the remote British research base at Halley Bay.

Here's Lawrence McGinty's special report on the evidence from his
Antarctic voyage. <ITN video report>

A month after leaving the Falkland Islands and the research ship
Bransfield crashes through packed ice on its way to Antarctica.

Sometimes the ice was so thick the ship could barely force it
apart. For a week we were almost ice locked.

We came to look for evidence that global warming in Antarctica
could present the greatest environmental threat ever. The island
of Signy provided the first signs.

Here scientists from the British Antarctic Survey took me to see
unique research that is producing firm evidence that warming is
occurring here

They are drilling through a metre of ice covering Lake Sombre
into sediment on the lake bottom.

By studying the remains of microscopic life in these mud samples
they can plot the climate over the last ten thousand years. They
found that in recent years the climate has become much warmer.

Lake biologist Cynan Ellis-Evans told ITN: "Fifty years ago there
would have been a five metre wall of ice sitting at the end of
the lake." <ITN audio report> <ITN audio report>

"The stream that flows down completely open to the atmosphere now
would have been flowing through an ice cave a couple of metres
below the ice surface."

"And basically behind your shoulder there would have been a very
large ice tun coming down off the ridge, right down onto the lake
itself."

The evidence from drilling clearly show that climate warming is
happening here and could be the result of man made pollution.

Yet more evidence is the break up of the Larsen Ice Shelf. These
pictures taken last year by British Antarctic Scientists show the
Larsen cracking into huge bergs

Another section the size of Yorkshire is due to collapse entirely
perhaps in the next few weeks. Dramatic maybe, but with no real
global consequences

But at Halley Bay, a thousand miles away on the coast of the
Antarctic mainland - our most southerly destination - warming
would have significant global effects.

"Scientists have been predicting the break of the Larsen ice
shelf for some time. On an Antarctic scale its relatively small.
The break-up of the larger ice shelves around the Antarctic
continent would be much more significantly and threatening." <ITN
audio report> <ITN audio report>

That's because the ice shelves that surround mainland Antarctica
are hundreds of miles wide and hold back two thirds of the
world's fresh water locked up in ice caps and glaciers.

If they broke up sea levels around the world would rise by over
fifteen feet with disastrous results.

Ice shelves are fractured by crevasses like the one I absailed
into to join the scientist who predicted the break up of the
Larsen, Chris Doake.

He warned the disintegration of the ice shelves on the mainland
would have a another widespread effect - on ocean currents and
the world's climate.

"By affecting the water that flows around the Antarctic continent
they help create the very cold waters that then affect the global
circulation in the ocean." <ITN audio report> <ITN audio report>

And by affecting the global circulation it means that what
happens down here could affect the rest of the world including
what happens in Europe."

So far there is no concrete evidence that warming has spread to
these ice shelves on the Antarctic mainland.

But by the time the alarm bells sound it could be too late.
Scientists just don't know what will happen in the coming
decades.

What they do know is that back on Signy island, changes in
wildlife could be yet another indicator of global warming.

Here scientists have been monitoring the 80,000 breeding penguins
like these Chinstraps for some years. And the numbers are
changing significantly. In recent years scientists studying these
colonies have seen more of these Chinstrap penguins.

"It could just be a natural variation but the Chinstrap is not
really a bird of the Antarctic continent and the increase in its
numbers here could be related to global warming." <ITN audio
report> <ITN audio report>

Even with all the pieces in the jigsaw of evidence we saw on our
voyage to Antarctica it is still too soon to say whether man-made
global warming is to blame. But this beautiful continent could
be giving us an early warning that we ignore at our peril.

Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 13:34:10 -0500
Reply-To: annerolfes@...
Originator: shell-nigeria-action@...
Sender: shell-nigeria-action@...
Precedence: bulk
From: "Anne Rolfes" <annerolfes@...>
To: Multiple recipients of list SHELL-NIGERIA-ACTION
<shell-nigeria-action@...>
Subject: Protest at Chevron in San Francisco -
Mime-Version: 1.0
X-Comment:  Please see http://lists.essential.org for help

Over the past month we have all been reading the dreadful happenings in
Ijawland. Chevron has called in the military as well as supplied
equipment for them. Now is the time to call Chevron to account.

Join in a protest at Chevron Headquarters!

Where:  San Francisco 575 Market St. at 2nd

When:  Noon, Thursday, January 28, 1999

How to get there: BART:  Montgomery St. Station
			 MUNI:   Market St. buses

This is a week of activities aimed at supporting the Ijaw and others
affected by Chevron. We had a great high school student protest on
Monday that kicked off the week. Fifty five students were there and
their action was shown on local TV stations.

Let's keep the pressure on!

This rally is sponsored by a Bay Area coalition including Acalones High
School Chapter of  Amnesty International, Center for African and African
American Art and Culture, Communities for a Better Environment, Global
Exchange, International Forum on Globalization, People's Rights
Organization, Project Underground, Rainforest Action Network, and
Transnational Resource Action Center.

For more information, call Anne Rolfes at  Project Underground, (510)
705-8981 or check out www.moles.org

__________________________________
Ogoni Refugees Still Shell-Shocked


In January of 1999, Project Underground released Shell-Shocked Refugees,
a 32 page passport style booklet featuring interviews with the Ogoni
refugees. It not only explains their plight, from their own perspective,
but gives you action to take to undo the injustice. To order, call 510 -
705-8981 or e mail us at project_underground@....  The cost is
$5.00 plus postage.

We must learn from the Ogoni experience to assure that the cycle of
sufferring stops. The Ogoni yesterday. The Ijaw are facing the same
problems today. There must be no one tomorrow turned into a corporate
refugee.
__________________________________

Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

These distractions in Washington, Clinton and Hyde, mask from the public
eye an environmental recklessness more vile in its consequences than any
and all in all the history of this the most environmentally reckless
country in the world.

Their struggle is of no real consequence.  Bill Clinton is a boy from
Arkansas:  You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take
the country out of the boy.  Hyde says he said the truth when it came
out.  But Hyde was in no position to hide the truth when it came out, so
he didn't.

But it was the same story.  At some point he swore it never happened.
You can bet on it.  It's not that boys will be boys and that's ok.  It's
that the pot shouldn't be calling the kettle black.  We've all done our
time.  It's not that any of us has done it really well.  We can't blame
each other for what's going on with us.  And you certainly can't blame
the world.

There she is, plugging along up there; and we don't care.  "She'll take
care of it.  She always has."  Safe for you to say.   What about her.

She doesn't take it personally.  She isn't pissed.  She is trying to
clean herself off.  And maybe Sun is trying  to warm her oil,
refertalize.  Maybe Sun can't find it.  We've used it all up.

If the world looks like a Vegas breathway, maybe we haven't been taking
such good care of her.

We should let it go at that.  There is no need for all of this.

Is there no other image, another tale that can capture America's
attention?  America wants something to do.  Doesn't it?

The press promises not to preach.  We will simply state the facts, it
says.  This usually precedes, "We will not pander to small minorities."
"We will state the facts as they are."

That the press will choose the stated facts is the right they claim as
editors.  This advantage they claim to derive from a vision from above
the many minorities that make up the public.  A sort of secular,
community-based God.  In their opinion, That gives these editors the
right to speak for all minorities and to ignore any of them.  In the
employ of a very small but influential minority that, of course may have
some residual influence on its hirelings, is an economic and not an
editorial consideration.  Wealth does not control speech.  Speech is
free.

We will listen to those whose support we enjoy.  That would only be
reasonable.  We enjoy supporters.  And supporters enjoy the support we
give them.

And most of that goes on around money.  Some aspect of it.

The press feels no need to "pander".  The public has bought in.  If it
feels a need to be convinced, there is always Diane.  Or Dolittle.
Always someone to speak for the bosses. And the bosses got the right of
way.

So the rules of public access and fair representation of the facts are
laid aside.  No longer needed when we all agree.  And for those who
don't agree, you are not enough.

The power to lead.  Where do they get it?  The problem is that we cannot
count on convincing them.  Even if we did, they'd just say, 'Sorry.
It's nothing personal.'  As if you can do anything big enough to affect
the Earth and it not be personal.  Tearing out our mother's lungs
doesn't effect just the economy.  Stopping it might save us all.

What we can do is get the attention of the common person.  The common
person is yearning to hear something that matters.  Gossip doesn't get
the work done.  A nation grown absorbed with gossip is a nation grown
old.  It is no longer clear why this is still going on.  All Publics
want it done with.  While they do not want a big show made of it, they
want it done right.  Put it in his permanent record.  Get on with life.

Could Global Warming Reverse Evolution?
by Gar Smith
Earth Island Journal
Winter 1998, p. 13

For 3.5 billion years, the Earth was dominated by so-called C3 plants,
which photosynthesize molecules containing three carbon atoms. Between six
and eight million years ago, Earth's vegetation changed radically.
So-called C4 plants, which produce four-carbon molecules and include
numerous grasses such as sugarcane, began to appear in many areas.

As C4 plants came onto the scene, many of the planet's Miocene woodlands
were replaced by savannas and millions of mammals faded into evolutionary
oblivion. According to the "savanna hypothesis," this plant revolution
spurred our human ancestors to leave the safety of the forests and learn to
forage on open grasslands.

"The planet is now a different planet," University of Utah geochemist Thure
E. Cerling explained in "Science News." Cerling and others now believe that
changing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) are linked to the
transition from C3 to C4 plants.

During the era of the dinosaurs, CO2 levels were as high as 1,000 parts per
million (ppm), but some eight million years ago, atmospheric CO2 levels
fell below 500 ppm. The result, "Science News" reports, was a "massive
turnover in the type of mammals populating the continents-an upheaval that
set the stage for the evolution of our ancestors."

While C4 vegetation now dominates the globe, C3 grasses still thrive in
colder, wetter climates. But the world could be on the brink of another
plant revolution. CO2 levels before the Industrial Revolution were 280 ppm.
Today CO2 levels stand at 360 ppm and rising.

"By increasing atmospheric [CO2] concentrations, humans may be changing the
Earth's atmosphere to conditions not favorable to a 'C4 world,' the world
in which we originally evolved," Cerling states.

"Science News" shares Cerling's concerns. "Without massive cuts in
greenhouse gas pollution-ones that far exceed the limits adopted in Kyoto,
Japan-the concentration of CO2 is expected to climb above 500 ppm sometime
in the latter half of the next century." When this happens, the world may
shift back into a C3 world, "a regime [the Earth] has not seen in the last
8 million years."

-----------------------
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.
-----------------------
Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction):
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 11:19:55 -0700
From: "Shannon Wright, Rainforest Action Network" <amazonia@...>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Precedence: bulk
Sender: owner-rags-rap@...
Subject: Deadline extended--Oil campaigner position at RAN
To: rags-rap@..., shell-nigeria-action@..., Amazonpetrol@...,
         udwg@...
X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by igc7.igc.org id LAA27514
X-Sender: amazonia@...

sorry for cross postings.


DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS EXTENDED UNTIL FEB. 1


J O B   P O S T I N G

AMAZON OIL CAMPAIGNER
RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
Closing Date: Feb. 1 , 1998

Title: Amazon Oil Campaigner
Supervisor: Campaigns Director
Location: San Francisco
Salary: DOE plus benefits
Start Date: ASAP

Position Summary:
RAN's Amazon Oil Campaign works to end new oil and gas projects in old
growth rainforests as a critical step in the transition away from fossil
fuels and into renewable energies.  The campaign coordinates directly with
local indigenous communities and South American environmental organizations
to redirect energy investments away from destructive oil and gas projects
and into sustainable alternatives.

RAN's Amazon Oil campaigner will work as part of the Energy Campaign team
to galvanize the public's concern over the destruction of old growth
forests, indigenous peoples' ways of life, and the threat of climate change
into rapid action to move our societies out of fossil fuels.

Qualifications:
The Amazon Oil campaigner requires demonstrated skills in written and
verbal communication, coalition building, networking, and campaign
strategy. Prioritizing tasks, volunteer coordination, and the ability to
empower and motivate grassroots activists in carrying out campaign tactics
are necessary. The position requires good decision-making skills,
professional initiative and results-oriented behavior.  Strong fluency in
Spanish is required as well as experience working with indigenous
communities and organizations. Previous successful campaign experience is
required; direct action experience is an asset. Knowledge of the oil
industry/energy policy/development issues a plus.

Responsibilities and Priorities:
* Execute pressure tactics to move specific Energy Campaign targets (e.g.:
oil companies, investors, etc) to end oil and gas investments in old growth
forests
* Build cross-sector support for the international moratorium on new fossil
fuel projects in frontier ecosystems
* Cultivate new and maintain existing relationships with individuals and
organizations engaged in campaign activities via telephone, email, direct
visits and joint activities (Amazon Coalition and Oilwatch members,
grassroots organizations, indigenous organizations).
* Produce and distribute professional quality campaign materials and
organizing kits
are produced and distributed to the grassroots network, media and
international allies. Write and edit materials as well as collaborate on
document design and layout.
* Travel to oil regions of the Amazon to document impacts and build
coordinated strategies with local allies.
* Maintain complete financial documentation of all activities and adhere to
approved budget.
* Represent RAN at environmental conferences and provide motivation and
tools to grassroots constituencies. Act as a public spokesperson for RAN as
needed.
*  Develop campaign strategies aimed at key constituencies (e.g.:
corporations, media, investors, policy makers)
* In coordination with the Volunteer and Intern Director, supervise interns
and volunteers working on campaign activities, including research, execution
of outreach, etc.
* Assist RAN's development staff in generating proposals.
* Participate in RAN's organizational planning and training sessions.  Share
office responsibilities to maintain a healthy and safe work place.
* Report to Campaigns Director regularly on accomplishments and plans of
action.
* Participate in Campaign Team planning and meetings.

People with diverse backgrounds and experiences are welcome and encouraged
to apply, particularly indigenous peoples and Latin Americans.

To apply, send cover letter, resume and 2 references to:  Amazon Oil Job
Search, Rainforest Action Network, 221 Pine St., Suite 500, San Francisco,
CA 94104 or by email to <ranadmin@...>




______________________________________________________
Shannon Wright 	 221 Pine Street, Suite 500
Rainforest Action Network  San Francisco, CA 94104 USA
E-mail: amazonia@...  tel: (415) 398-4404
URL: http://www.ran.org 	 fax: (415) 398-2732


Rainforest Action Network works to protect the Earth's rainforests and
support the rights of their inhabitants through education, grassroots
organizing, and non-violent direct action.

Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 15:57:35 -0500 (EST)
To: rachel-weekly@...
Subject: Rachel #634: Liability for Global Warming?
From: rachel@...
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=======================Electronic Edition========================
.                                                               .
.           RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY #634           .
.                    ---January 21, 1999---                     .
.                          HEADLINES:                           .
.                 LIABILITY FOR GLOBAL WARMING?                 .
.                          ==========                           .
.               THE RAW POWER OF THE CORPORATION                .
.                          ==========                           .
.                         LIFE IS SWEET                         .
.                          ==========                           .
.               Environmental Research Foundation               .
.              P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD  21403              .
.          Fax (410) 263-8944; E-mail: erf@...           .
.                          ==========                           .
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=================================================================


LIABILITY FOR GLOBAL WARMING?

For the past decade a small group of physicists, funded partly by
oil and coal companies, has been denying that the earth is being
warmed by humans burning oil, coal and gasoline. In the face of
overwhelming evidence, they have insisted that global warming may
not be happening at all.

For evidence they have relied chiefly on satellite measurements
of the temperature of the lower atmosphere, measurements that
have revealed a pattern of cooling, not warming, during the past
20 years.

In 1998 Dr. Frank Wentz of Remote Sensing Systems in Santa Rosa,
California, reported that those satellite measurements contain a
systematic error. Everyone involved had neglected to correct for
the fact that the satellites were slowly falling to earth, at
about one kilometer per year. With the systematic bias
corrected, the data no longer indicate that the atmosphere is
cooling.

Now that the main scientific evidence against global warming has
disappeared, it will be interesting to see what arguments the
energy corporations come up with in 1999 to continue to evade
legal liability for global warming.[1]

There is much to evade: 1998 was by far the warmest year
recorded during the past 600 years (by thermometers, tree rings
and ice cores) -- nearly one degree Fahrenheit warmer than the
second-warmest year, which was 1997. The extreme warmth of 1998
was accompanied by the following signs of "climate chaos" (as
reported by the British NEW SCIENTIST magazine): record-setting
forest fires in Florida, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, and southern
Europe; bush fires in northern Australia; floods and
accompanying mudslides in California and coastal Peru and
Ecuador (where 50,000 were left homeless); major flooding in
east Africa; Hurricane Mitch, which killed more than 20,000
people in Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador and devastated
the economies of central America; drought in New Guinea; intense
drought and famine in southern Sudan; drought in central America
that left the Panama Canal too shallow for many ships to pass
through; failed coffee crops in Indonesia and in Ethiopia;
failed sugar and rice crops in Thailand; failed cocoa and rubber
crops in Malaysia; cotton crop failure in Uganda; and warm ocean
currents that reduced the Peruvian fish catch by 45%.[2]

The NEW SCIENTIST reports that "human disease is emerging as one
of the most sensitive, and distressing, indicators, of climate
change." (See REHW #466, #467, #528.) As temperatures rise,
mosquitoes that carry disease are moving into new territory.
Dengue fever -- also called "break bone fever" because it is so
painful -- is spreading throughout the Americas and has reached
Texas. In Kenya, the worst floods in years unleashed an epidemic
of water-borne cholera; and in Kenya's capital city, Nairobi
(headquarters of the United Nations Environment Program),
mosquitoes are now transmitting malaria to humans.

We favor the idea, floated early last year, to stop naming
hurricanes after individual humans and start naming them after
oil companies. In place of hurricane Alice or hurricane Hugo, we
would have hurricane Mobil and hurricane Exxon. A headline like
"Exxon Kills 10,000, Leaves 50,000 Homeless" would have a certain
salutary ring of truth to it.



THE RAW POWER OF THE CORPORATION

During 1998, Americans were treated to a demonstration of the
raw power of the corporation. Corporations prefer never to flex
their political muscle in public, but sometimes it can't be
helped.

During 1998, some 30 million pages of secret tobacco-industry
documents became public, revealing the following:

** According to an internal memo dated 1987, R.J. Reynolds
designed a fatter cigarette, intending to addict new customers
as young as age 13.

** Another internal document revealed that Philip Morris
investigated the smoking habits of children as young as 12,
hoping to addict as many of them as possible.

** Brown and Williamson, owned by the British American Tobacco
Company, once considered a plan to produce cigarettes with a
"cola-like taste."

** NEW SCIENTIST uncovered a plan by Philip Morris to hire
scientists as consultants to start a new scientific society to
provide a forum favorable to the tobacco industry's views. (The
Tobacco Institute was already functioning in that capacity, but
its name clearly linked it to the industry it served; evidently
the tobacco corporations felt the need for a new scientific
society with a more independent appearance.)

** The St. Paul PIONEER PRESS revealed that the Tobacco
Institute had paid scientists to submit letters and articles to
journals, to cast doubt on studies linking second-hand smoke to
disease. Scientists willing to participate received $2000 to
$5000 per letter and $10,000 per article. The articles and
letters were edited by tobacco industry lawyers prior to
publication.

** It was shown conclusively during 1998 that, for years, the
tobacco companies have routinely manipulated the nicotine levels
in tobacco leaves to give smokers a bigger "hit,"[3] to keep
them addicted.

** It was also revealed that numerous tobacco corporation
executives had lied openly and repeatedly to the media, the
public, and while testifying under oath to Congress. None of
them was impeached or even asked to apologize.

On the contrary: during 1998, the tobacco companies summoned the
attorneys general of 26 states to meet with them, negotiated
with them for five months in total secrecy (all public health
specialists were excluded from the negotiations), announced a
deal on November 14, 1998, and on that date gave the attorneys
general of all the states one week to take it or leave it.[4]
The tobacco companies promised to pay $206 billion to the states
over a 25 year period. Within the required 7 days, the states
all sniveled into line and took Big Tobacco's money.

Let's see what a payment of $206 billion might mean for the big
4 tobacco companies, RJR Nabisco, Philip Morris, Lorillard, and
British American Tobacco (owner of Brown and Williamson
Tobacco). Together the four firms presently enjoy combined sales
of roughly $38 billion per year.[5] Here is a "worst case" from
the viewpoint of the tobacco corporations. Suppose they have 25
bad years and their earnings grow at just 5% above the rate of
inflation (which, historically, has been 3.1% per year[6]). Over
the next 25 years, they would earn a total of $3085 billion, of
which they will donate $206 billion, or 6.6%, to the states.
Naturally the states will be worried that they won't get their
money (Maryland alone stands to get $4 billion), so they will be
reluctant to interfere with the business practices of the
tobacco companies during the 25-year period.

Of course the tobacco companies intend to increase their
earnings substantially faster than 5% above the rate of
inflation. For example, after the $206 billion settlement became
public, Philip Morris said it expected next year's earnings to
exceed this year's by 9.5%. Wall Street analysts have announced
their consensus that Big Tobacco is a good investment: buy and
hold, they say. Big Tobacco is a good investment because tobacco
corporations have a carefully-thought-out plan to addict several
billion people in the Third World during the next 25 years.
That's where the states' $206 billion will come from.

The BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL estimates that tobacco today is
killing four million people each year, half in the rich nations
and half in the Third World. (In the U.S. today, 33% of all
deaths of people between the ages of 35 and 69 are attributable
to tobacco.[7]) By the year 2030, tobacco is expected to be
killing 10 million people each year, 70% of them in the Third
World. As time goes on, the killing fields will expand
substantially. In China alone, 100 million young men alive today
will die at the hands of a tobacco company, according to the
BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL.[8]

So 7% of sales -- or perhaps far less, if Third World business
develops as planned -- is the total penalty the tobacco
corporations will pay for intentionally addicting hundreds of
millions of children and young adults to a product that kills
nearly 50% of everyone who uses it as directed.

In sum: with abundant evidence of criminal conduct and criminal
intentions on the public record for all to see, the combined
power of half the attorneys general of these United States could
not bring Big Tobacco to justice. Instead, Big Tobacco bought
them off, all of them.

Now THAT is a convincing demonstration of raw corporate
power.



LIFE IS SWEET

A study published in 1998 revealed that men who eat candy in
moderation live longer than those who don't.[9] Candy is defined
as sugar confections or chocolate. Subjects of the study were
7841 men who entered Harvard University between 1916 and 1950
and who responded to a health survey in 1988.

Those who ate candy differed in several respects from those who
didn't. Those who didn't eat candy were older, leaner, and more
likely to smoke tobacco compared to those who did. Those who
didn't eat candy ate more red meat, ate fewer vegetables or
green salad, and were more likely to take vitamin or mineral
supplements, compared to those who ate candy.

After adjusting for age and cigarette smoking, those who ate
candy lived an average of nearly a year (0.92 years) longer than
those who didn't.

However, those who ate candy in moderation lived even longer
than those who ate a lot of it. ("A lot" was defined as "three
or more times each week.") Moderation in all things...

Authors of the study speculate that it may be chocolate that is
providing life-prolonging benefits to candy eaters. Previous
studies have shown that chocolate reduces the danger of heart
attack. (See REHW #527.) They compare chocolate to red wine,
which is also believed to reduce heart disease, when used in
moderation.[10]

Chocolate is also known to act as an antioxidant (tieing up
"free radical" oxygen molecules).[11] Antioxidants are believed
to reduce the dangers of both heart disease and cancer.

==========

[1] "Falling hero breaks sceptics' hearts," NEW SCIENTIST Vol.
160, No. 2165/6/7 (December 19 & 26, 1998, and January 2, 1999),
pg. 32.

[2] Fred Pearce, "Can't stand the heat," NEW SCIENTIST Vol. 160,
No. 2165/6/7 (December 19 & 26, 1998, and January 2, 1999), pgs.
32-33.

[3] David Concar, "The Smoking Gun," NEW SCIENTIST Vol. 160, No.
2165/6/7 (December 19 & 26, 1998, and January 2, 1999), pgs.
30-31.

[4] Saundra Torry and John Schwartz, "Big Tobacco, State
Officials Reach $206 Billion Deal; Pact Needs Approval of Dozens
of States," WASHINGTON POST November 14, 1998, pg. A1.

[5] Data from the Yahoo finance web site, www.yahoo.com.

[6] SBBI STOCKS, BONDS, BILLS, AND INFLATION 1998 YEARBOOK
(Chicago, Ill.: Ibbotson Associates, 1998), pg. 31. ISBN
1-882864-07-7.

[7] Alan D. Lopez, "Counting the dead in China," BRITISH MEDICAL
JOURNAL Vol. 317 (November 21, 1998), pg. 1399.

[8] Bo-Qi Liu and others, "Emerging tobacco hazards in China: 1.
Retrospective proportional mortality study of one million
deaths," BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL Vol. 317, No. 7170 (November
21, 1998), pgs. 1411-1422. And Shi-Ru Niu and others, "Emerging
tobacco hazards in China: 2. Early mortality results from a
prospective study," BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL Vol. 317, No. 7170
(November 21, 1998), pgs. 1423-1424.

[9] I-Min Lee and Ralph S. Paffenbarger Jr., "Life is sweet:
candy consumption and longevity," BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL Vol.
317, No. 7174 (December 19-26, 1998), pgs. 1683-1684.

[10] Richard Doll, "One for the heart," BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL
Vol. 315 (1997), pgs. 1664-1668.

[11] A.L. Waterhouse and others, "Antioxidants in Chocolate,"
LANCET Vol. 348 (1996), pg. 834.

Descriptor terms: global warming; climate change; oil
corporations; coal corporations; fossil fuels; floods; famines;
forest fires; mudslides; hurricanes; crop failures; malaria;
dengue fever; global warming and human health; tobacco; candy;
chocolate; diet and health;

################################################################
                              NOTICE
Environmental Research Foundation provides this electronic
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                                         --Peter Montague, Editor
################################################################


Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

climatecrisisaction@onelist.com wrote:
>

> Subject: Re: FWD: Forests Worth More Standing Than Cut?
>
You Wrote:  "how to people feel about the promotion of bicyling, combine
with an appropriate transit system, as a method of reducing greenhous
gass emission?"

How about letting electricity do our traveling for us.  Let's work on the net.
No travel at all.  Save the environment for itself.

I think that's the answer.



> I thnk its avery interesting lwsuit.  Studying in environmental science,
> I'll be writing a thesis on "biking to work" and I will look at the
> economic benefits for the company when employees bike to work (fewer
> delays, better health, less absanteesm, more job performance, etc).

You're an inner city sorta guy.

  As
> an activist, I don't adhere to the idea that economics shuold be
> included in all environmentla debate, but within a society that uses
> economics as its mainframe, its seems that its how one must "include"
> environmental issues.  I'm struggling with the issue, and although I
> will be using the approach, I think it has severe limits.

Biking is a good idea.  And it warrants implementation.
But we need other starter ideas as well.
>
> Everytime I get an e-mail I,m reminded that I,m subscribed. IM
> wondering, how to people feel about the promotion of bicyling, combine
> with an appropriate transit system, as a method of reducing greenhous
> gass emission?  We often look at industrial emissions as a source of
> atmospheric carbon, whereas a large part of industrial productivity goes
> to the fabrication of automobiles, and the largest contributor of carbon
> is from the transportation sector.

We are paying a huge price for these comforts we've built.  Like cars.
You have to wonder what we will have done to our kids when the gas runs out.
>
> Anyways, got to go, school...
>
> Well, good luck.
> > From: DavidOrr@...
> >
> > Group Files Logging Lawsuit
> > > By MARY ANN LICKTEIG
> >
> > MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- A group of environmentalists sued the U.S. Forest
> > Service on Thursday, claiming it is ignoring evidence that forests
> > generate more income when left alone than when logged.
> >
> > The environmental groups, which include Friends of the Earth and Forest
> > Guardians, accuse the Forest Service of violating federal law requiring
> > it to consider the economic and social benefits of a standing forest
> > before cutting the trees.
> >
> > The lawsuit is unusual, since environmental groups normally claim
> > economics should have no bearing in the forestry debate.
> >
> > But it plays into a new legal theory gaining hold in some circles that
> > asserts that standing forests are worth more than the value of the timber
> > sold and jobs created through logging.
> >
> > ``The goal of the lawsuit is to compel the proper accounting,'' plaintiff
> > lawyer Brian Dunkiel said.
> >
> > Uncut forests generate income through recreation, hunting, fishing and
> > tourism, according to the lawsuit. The Forestry Service must consider
> > these values, as well as the economic costs of logging such as damage to
> > water resources, and weigh them against the value of the timber industry,
> > according to the suit.
> >

It has never been possible to calculate the economic value
of non commodities.  We wouldn't want it to be.


> > ``This case is really about jobs versus jobs,'' Dunkiel said. ``There's a
> > certain amount of jobs and economic activity that's created by logging
> > public lands and there's a certain amount of jobs and economic activity
> > that's created by unlogged public lands, and we want to find out how the
> > scales balance out.''
> >
Change in job skills; change in local population.  The periods of transition
are always rough.

> > Underscoring the uniqueness of the lawsuit is its list of plaintiffs.
> >
> > Among them are the owner of a medicinal herb company in Indiana whose
> > income depends on standing forests; an Arizona hunter who claims to lose
> > hunting opportunities when forests are logged, harming the income of
> > guides, outfitters, equipment suppliers and others.

These are the peoples businesspeople.  They may not make as much as the loggers,
but they don't take as much from the land either.  What they take they give
back.
As has always been the way.

> >
> > There are 191 million acres of national forest lands in 43 states. Less
> > than half is available for logging.
> >
> > AP-NY-12-17-98 1856EST
> >
> > -----------------------
> > NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
> > is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
> > in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.
> > -----------------------
> > Andy Caffrey
> > Director, Climate Action NOW!
> > P.O. Box 324
> > Redway, CA  95560
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, or to change your subscription
> > to digest, go to the ONElist web site, at http://www.onelist.com and
> > select the User Center link from the menu bar on the left.
>
> --
> ----------------------------------------------------
> anne-marie_moran@...
> m166110@...
>
> ICQ# 22773105 or,
> *E-mail direct 22773105@...
>
> Think Globally - Bike locally!
> ----------------------------------------------------
>
>
_______________________________________________________________________________
>
_______________________________________________________________________________

I thnk its avery interesting lwsuit.  Studying in environmental science,
I'll be writing a thesis on "biking to work" and I will look at the
economic benefits for the company when employees bike to work (fewer
delays, better health, less absanteesm, more job performance, etc).  As
an activist, I don't adhere to the idea that economics shuold be
included in all environmentla debate, but within a society that uses
economics as its mainframe, its seems that its how one must "include"
environmental issues.  I'm struggling with the issue, and although I
will be using the approach, I think it has severe limits.

Everytime I get an e-mail I,m reminded that I,m subscribed. IM
wondering, how to people feel about the promotion of bicyling, combine
with an appropriate transit system, as a method of reducing greenhous
gass emission?  We often look at industrial emissions as a source of
atmospheric carbon, whereas a large part of industrial productivity goes
to the fabrication of automobiles, and the largest contributor of carbon
is from the transportation sector.

Anyways, got to go, school...



> From: DavidOrr@...
>
> Group Files Logging Lawsuit
> > By MARY ANN LICKTEIG
>
> MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- A group of environmentalists sued the U.S. Forest
> Service on Thursday, claiming it is ignoring evidence that forests
> generate more income when left alone than when logged.
>
> The environmental groups, which include Friends of the Earth and Forest
> Guardians, accuse the Forest Service of violating federal law requiring
> it to consider the economic and social benefits of a standing forest
> before cutting the trees.
>
> The lawsuit is unusual, since environmental groups normally claim
> economics should have no bearing in the forestry debate.
>
> But it plays into a new legal theory gaining hold in some circles that
> asserts that standing forests are worth more than the value of the timber
> sold and jobs created through logging.
>
> ``The goal of the lawsuit is to compel the proper accounting,'' plaintiff
> lawyer Brian Dunkiel said.
>
> Uncut forests generate income through recreation, hunting, fishing and
> tourism, according to the lawsuit. The Forestry Service must consider
> these values, as well as the economic costs of logging such as damage to
> water resources, and weigh them against the value of the timber industry,
> according to the suit.
>
> ``This case is really about jobs versus jobs,'' Dunkiel said. ``There's a
> certain amount of jobs and economic activity that's created by logging
> public lands and there's a certain amount of jobs and economic activity
> that's created by unlogged public lands, and we want to find out how the
> scales balance out.''
>
> Underscoring the uniqueness of the lawsuit is its list of plaintiffs.
>
> Among them are the owner of a medicinal herb company in Indiana whose
> income depends on standing forests; an Arizona hunter who claims to lose
> hunting opportunities when forests are logged, harming the income of
> guides, outfitters, equipment suppliers and others.
>
> There are 191 million acres of national forest lands in 43 states. Less
> than half is available for logging.
>
> AP-NY-12-17-98 1856EST
>
> -----------------------
> NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
> is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
> in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.
> -----------------------
> Andy Caffrey
> Director, Climate Action NOW!
> P.O. Box 324
> Redway, CA  95560
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, or to change your subscription
> to digest, go to the ONElist web site, at http://www.onelist.com and
> select the User Center link from the menu bar on the left.

--
----------------------------------------------------
anne-marie_moran@...
m166110@...

ICQ# 22773105 or,
*E-mail direct 22773105@...

Think Globally - Bike locally!
----------------------------------------------------

From: DavidOrr@...

Note the unfortunate last line...


12/17/98

Group Files Logging Lawsuit

By MARY ANN LICKTEIG

c. The Associated Press

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- A group of environmentalists sued the U.S. Forest
Service on Thursday, claiming it is ignoring evidence that forests
generate more income when left alone than when logged.

The environmental groups, which include Friends of the Earth and Forest
Guardians, accuse the Forest Service of violating federal law requiring
it to consider the economic and social benefits of a standing forest
before cutting the trees.

The lawsuit is unusual, since environmental groups normally claim
economics should have no bearing in the forestry debate.

But it plays into a new legal theory gaining hold in some circles that
asserts that standing forests are worth more than the value of the timber
sold and jobs created through logging.

``The goal of the lawsuit is to compel the proper accounting,'' plaintiff
lawyer Brian Dunkiel said.

Uncut forests generate income through recreation, hunting, fishing and
tourism, according to the lawsuit. The Forestry Service must consider
these values, as well as the economic costs of logging such as damage to
water resources, and weigh them against the value of the timber industry,
according to the suit.

``This case is really about jobs versus jobs,'' Dunkiel said. ``There's a
certain amount of jobs and economic activity that's created by logging
public lands and there's a certain amount of jobs and economic activity
that's created by unlogged public lands, and we want to find out how the
scales balance out.''

Underscoring the uniqueness of the lawsuit is its list of plaintiffs.

Among them are the owner of a medicinal herb company in Indiana whose
income depends on standing forests; an Arizona hunter who claims to lose
hunting opportunities when forests are logged, harming the income of
guides, outfitters, equipment suppliers and others.

There are 191 million acres of national forest lands in 43 states. Less
than half is available for logging.

AP-NY-12-17-98 1856EST

-----------------------
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.
-----------------------
Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction):
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

http://www.adn.com/stories/T99010510.html

Anchorage Daily News
Tuesday, January 5, 1999

ALASKA CHARTS A WARM YEAR ACROSS STATE
TEMPERATURE'S RISING, ALASKA FIGURES SHOW

By SHEILA TOOMEY
Daily News reporter


With Anchorage thermometers reading zero by flashlight on a
post-holiday Monday morning it was hard to worry about the world
heating up, but year-end temperature tallies indicate Alaska was
unusually warm in 1998.

Increases in annual average temperatures were noted in all six
reporting stations monitored by the Alaska Climate Research
Center, especially up on the North Slope.  The average
temperature in Barrow jumped well into double digits - from 9.4
degrees to 16.9 degrees.

That's 7.5 degrees above normal, a huge jump in the world of
meteorology.

Odd happenings that may or may not be related to the warming have
been observed, said Charlie Brower, director of wildlife
management for the North Slope Borough.  The ice on the Arctic
Ocean melted early and formed late, he said.  The local caribou
herd migrated farther south than usual, and a shark species no
one ever saw before washed up on a beach in Point Hope.

The 1998 increase in average temperatures continues a warming
trend noted here since the late 1970s.  In Anchorage, the average
temperature was 1.3 degrees above normal, said Jan Curtis, a
climatologist at the Climate Research Center in Fairbanks.

Nome and King Salmon were each 2.2 degrees above average, and
Juneau was 1.9 degrees higher.

Average annual temperatures are determined by taking an average
between the high and low each day, then averaging those numbers
for the year, then averaging the annual temperatures for the
30-year period 1961-90.

Temperatures are rising across much of the North, Curtis said.
Scientists have predicted global warming would show up
dramatically in the high latitudes, but the scientists are still
fighting over the cause.  Fossil fuels burning at a prodigious
rate and changes in the sun are popular suspects.

Short-term effects can also have consequences.  "If you get more
or less rain, whole economies can change," Curtis said.

"We have noticed some unusual sea conditions," Brower said.
"Everything usually freezes by September for ice fishing.  It
didn't freeze till November.  ...  I usually go fall fishing the
middle of September.  By Sept. 20, everything would be frozen.
All the creeks and rivers, they didn't freeze until mid-October."

Local women reported berries growing closer to town this year,
said borough information officer Elise Patkotak.  And the
caribou, which usually migrate to the Seward Peninsula were
meandering down the Yukon almost to Bethel, Brower said.

"This is very unusual," he said.

Right now the ice off the Barrow beach is only 4 or 5 feet thick,
maybe less in some areas, Brower said.  "It's usually about 8 to
10 feet thick."  Without ice to protect it, the shoreline is
vulnerable to violent Arctic storms.

Are Barrow residents alarmed?

"They do have some concerns," Brower said.  "But once this cold
came around, they kind of settled down."

It was a comforting minus-15 in Barrow Monday, not counting wind
chill.

* Reporter Steve Rinehart contributed to this story.  Reporter
Sheila Toomey can be reached at stoomey@...

-----------------------
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.
-----------------------
Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction):
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

Update on yesterday's Ogoni Day Occupation of Shell's London offices.

Contents:

1. News Release from London Activists
2. Article from Environmental News Services
3. Update from NoMoreShell UK webpage

-------------------------------------------------
1. News Release from London Activists
-------------------------------------------------
UKOOA News release Tuesday, January 5, 1999
Shell protest activists pledge to step up campaigns through 1999

Yesterday's protest at Shell-Mex House in the Strand, London, ended with
the environmental and human rights activists released without charge and
pledging to continue challenging corporate hegemony. Police ejected the
protesters from the building for a second time today as they leafleted
Shell workers in the building's foyer.

The action on January 4 involved a dozen smartly dressed anti-corporate
executives breaching security to enter the building. They then barricaded
themselves into top management offices including those of the new Shell-UK
boss Malcolm Brinded and outgoing boss Chris Fay. From the offices the
protesters used a lap-top computer and mobile phone to relay live pictures
and updates of the protest to a Shell-style website at
<http://www.kemptown.org/shell>. After 6 hours, riot police smashed through
the office walls and arrested all the protesters.

The activists described the protest as an act of solidarity with indigenous
resistance to Shell in Nigeria. The protesters in London demanded
compliance with the demands of the Ijaw ethnic group for Shell to leave
their traditional lands and for an end to corporate-backed military
repression. Chris Fay refused to negotiate with the activists and called
the Ijaw demands "irrational."

Killings of Niger Delta activists by soldiers were reported yesterday by
Nigerian based groups Environmental Rights Action and ND-HERO as having
reached 240 since the New Year. The killings follow an increase of direct
action in the Niger Delta over the last 2 years by youths angry at the
continuing poverty of the oil-rich areas and the pollution caused by oil
companies’ outdated equipment and negligent performance.

500 Ijaw communities from across the Niger Delta had issued the Kaiama
Declaration on 11 December 1998 giving Shell, Chevron and other
transnationals until 30 December 1998 to leave their land - or face
eviction. Military Administrator of Bayelsa State, Lt. Col Paul Obi,
declared a State of Emergency, suspending all civil liberties and imposing
a dusk-to-dawn curfew on the entire state, the first such declaration since
the Biafra-Nigeria civil war.

They Ijaws launched Operation Climate Change’ on January 1, 1999, saying
that activists would shut down oil flow stations and their polluting gas
flares between January 1 and 10. Thousands of troops have now been sent to
smash occupations of oil installations, disperse rallies and provide a
military shield for continued oil production across the Delta.

The activists in London chose the first day of work in the last year before
the new Millenium to send a message to corporations that 1999 will be a
year of increased globalisation of protest. Activists said that the Shell
protest gave a foretaste of direct action to come. A spokesperson said
yesterday, "We mean business. This is the turning point that will see the
end of corporate dominance."

For further information, contact (+44) (0) 958 795198, or DELTA on (+44)
(0) 116 270 9616 or (+44) (0) 181 806 2253. Visit
<http://www.kemptown.org/shell>www.kemptown.org/shell for more details and
images of the protest.

ends

--------------------------------------------------
2. Article from Environmental News Services
---------------------------------------------------
SHELL HEAD OFFICE OCCUPIED

LONDON, UK, January 4, 1998 (ENS) - After a six hour occupation of
management offices at Royal Dutch Shell by activists who barricaded
themselves in, police smashed through the partition walls and arrested 13
protesters.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1998 For Full Text and Graphics
Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jan99/1999L-01-04-01.html
http://ens.lycos.com/

ens/jan99/1999L-01-04-01.html


-------------------------------------------------
3. Update from NoMoreShell UK webpage
http://www.kemptown.org/shell/main.html
-------------------------------------------------
Last updated: 5.1.99

Yesterday's protest at Shell-Mex House in the Strand, London, ended with
the environmental and human rights activists released without charge and
pledging to continue challenging corporate hegemony. Police ejected the
protesters from the building for a second time today as they leafleted
Shell workers in the building's foyer.

The action on January 4 involved a dozen smartly dressed anti-corporate
executives breaching security to enter the building. They then barricaded
themselves into top management offices including those of the new Shell-UK
boss Malcolm Brinded and outgoing boss Chris Fay. From the offices the
protesters used a lap-top computer and mobile phone to relay live pictures
and updates of the protest to a Shell-style website at
http://www.kemptown.org/shell

After 6 hours, riot police smashed through the office walls and arrested
all the protesters.

The activists described the protest as an act of solidarity with indigenous
resistance to Shell in Nigeria. The protesters in London demanded
compliance with the demands of the Ijaw ethnic group for Shell to leave
their traditional lands and for an end to corporate-backed military
repression.

UPDATE 1 Well it's 9:30, we're occupying the Shell-Mex house in London,
barricaded securely at doors and windows. This is the headquarters of Shell
UK, the UK division of one of the most aggressive and violent of oil
companies. One team is in the 9th floor office of Chris Fay, the outgoing
boss of Shell UK. Another team is secure in the 4th floor office of Malcolm
Brinded, his successor.

This is quite a special day. For a start, it's the first working day of the
last year of the millenium, and we're marking the fact that, faced with the
threat of global climate change, the oil industry has had its day. Indeed,
this is going to be a year when the oil industry, and transnational
corporations generally, face increasing resistance from people around the
world. A major focus of protest will be on June 18th 1999, when widespread
demonstrations will be taking place in financial centres, from London to
New York to Mexico City. More details on http://www.gn.apc.org/june18

Today is also an important day for the communities suffering from oil
exploitation in the Niger Delta. The Ijaw people have, like the Ogoni
before them, taken peaceful action to save their lives, health and culture
from the devastation of oil production. Last month they issued an ultimatum
to oil companies (including Shell, Chevron and Texaco) - the Kaiama
declaration - to get out of Ijaw areas by December 30th. On January 1st
Ijaw activists undertook "Operation Climate Change," with a committment to
shut down all flow stations and gas-flaring by January 10th. We're here to
support their demands.

Our thoughts go to the families of the 19 Ijaw people murdered by the
Nigerian state in support of oil companies in the last week. More
information on http://www.moles.org

Today is also Ogoni Day, marking exactly 6 years since the Ogoni officially
launched their struggle against Shell.

So don't just sit there reading about what we're doing to damage Shell.
Take action too!


UPDATE 2 It's now 11:00 and our group has been discovered by the police and
Shell employees, We've successfully up loaded web pages from within our
barricaded office.

We have begun negotiation with shell executives...

Images of us finally connecting to the web to upload the pages and the
barricades inside of the occupied office...


UPDATE 3 12pm. They've just cut the electricity and phone lines in an
attempt to disconnect us from the rest of the Internet world. Fortunately
we have some battery life left so will keep updating while we can.

We are trying to open communications with Mark Moody-Stuart to present
Shell with the demands of the Ijaw people.

Newsflash We've been just been told that in the last few days 240 people,
Ijaw and others have been shot dead. (ND-HERO)


UPDATE 4 12.40pm. We've spoken to Chris Fay, who has refused to negotiate
(and to put the phones back on). He has said that Shell won't meet the Ijaw
demands which he called irrational, and has refused to discuss the issue.


UPDATE 5 2pm. Police arrested at least 2 groups of activists by smashing
through partition walls. No more updates from the inside, but we will keep
you updated from the outside.


UPDATE 6 3pm. All activists have been arrested for suspicion of criminal
damage, and are currently being 'processed' at Charing Cross Police
Station.

7pm. No charges were pressed and all were released.


Email us at nomoreshell@...


-- Monica Wilson

Essential Action P.O. Box 19405, Washington, DC 20036, 202.387.8030,
202.234.5176 (fax) mwilson@...
	 http://www.essential.org/action/shell/

Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

----------------------------Original message----------------------------

>This has just arrived in my email-- universities organizing to get Kyoto
ratified.

cf
>
>To: Students interested in / worried about global warming
>From: Eban Goodstein, Lewis and Clark Economics Department
>
>Hi folks--
>
>       Most of us concerned about environmental issues,  I think,  have
>come to recognize that stopping global warming is the biggest
>environmental challenge we will face in our lifetimes.  But at the same
>time, the problem seems so big and overwhelming that  many of us have felt
>powerless to do much about it. Now there is something you can do. I am
>writing to let you know that next January,  we will be forming a Lewis and
>Clark chapter of Kyoto Now!  This group, networking with students and
>environmental activists around the northwest, will focus on the one very
>concrete and critical action we need to take to stop global warming:  push
>our Senators to support the Kyoto global warming treaty.
>
>       Global warming will of course have global impacts, and will hit
>poor countries the hardest.  We had a vivid example of this vulnerability
>to climate change last fall, when a single unusually powerful storm
>wreaked widespread economic and social destruction, killing thousands of
>people in Central America.  But it will also have impacts on local
>ecosystems, that, for better or worse, will rival any changes so far
>wrought by human activity.
>
>       Here in the Northwest we can anticipate more rain and less snow,
>meaning less late summer water for irrigation and salmon.  Winter floods
>will worsen, and glaciers dwindle.  Loss of biodiversity and species
>extinction will accelerate, forests and alpine meadows will shrink in
>size, fires and pest outbreaks will intensify.  Finally, sea level rise
>will mean problems for coastal communities and estuary environments.
>
>       While we all recognize that global warming is big and bad, I have
>been surprised to find that, at the grassroots level, no one seems to be
>organizing to stop it.  One might counter that this paralysis reflects a
>problem that is simply too big,  that there is no concrete action to take
>at the local level.  But this is not so.  There is an extraordinarily
>focused and concrete political goal out there: persuading 66 US Senators
>to ratify the Kyoto global warming treaty. Here in Oregon,  for example,
>this means convincing two men, Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden, to make one
>vote.
>
>       The Kyoto treaty calls for us to reduce our greenhouse gas
>emissions below 1990 levels. While it has been signed by Clinton, it must
>now be ratified by the Senate. The prospect for ratification is, at best,
>uncertain.  The opposition is well funded and organized, and have the
>strong support of the republican majority in the Senate. The democrats are
>disorganized and showing no leadership on the issue. A year ago last
>summer the Senate passed by a vote of  *95-0* a resolution saying that
>
>they would not ratify a treaty that did not have large scale developing
>country participation.  And the Kyoto agreement-- even as expanded in
>Buenos Aires-- will not have that.  In the absence of sustained grassroots
>pressure, Kyoto.s opponents, well funded by the oil, auto and coal
>industries, will win this vote.
>
>       Over the past few decades, students have been at the forefront of
>movements for environmental and social justice.  Today we have:
>
>*A much broader base of environmentally concerned folks.
>*A task as morally compelling as any for which we have fought in the past.
>*A concrete political goal.
>
>On campuses, especially,  students have a profound personal stake in this
>problem, and seem to care deeply about it. Given all this, why is there no
>national movement demanding that our Senators act on Kyoto, and that the
>US assume a leadership role in stopping the accelerating greenhouse
>disaster?
>
>       My conclusion is that, in large measure, there is simply no one
>organizing it.  The campus-based organizing tradition focused on national
>issues, that grew out of the civil rights movements sustained national
>student activism through the anti-nuclear and Central America solidarity
>movements.  But that tradition has largely faded.
>
>       I am asking you to help restore it.  Along with some friends, we
>will be  launching a new organization called "Kyoto Now!".  Kyoto Now!
>will be dedicated to building a campus-based movement focused on
>ratification of the Kyoto treaty.  The plan is to start the first chapter
>here at Lewis and Clark, and spend the spring building chapters at schools
>throughout Oregon and Washington.  The focus of this organizing activity
>will be a teach-in and march on the local Senate offices here in Portland
>in early April, with the goal of drawing in hundreds of students and
>activists from across the Northwest.
>
>       Based on many conversations I have had over the last year, I truly
>feel that a deep level of student concern is there,  waiting for a spark.
>If in the coming months, we work together to lay a solid foundation and
>provide a powerful example,  the movement could quickly spread across the
>US.
>
>       This is an ambitious vision. Is it really possible? I think so. I
>am writing to you in part to let you know what we are up to and to ask you
>to spread the word among folks that you think might be interested. In
>particular, if you know of anyone who might
>like to help form a chapter,  please pass this message along to them, and
>tell them to contact me directly (one of the first projects  of the LC
>chapter will be to set up  a web site).  And of course if you are
>interested in helping out, let me know via e-mail, and/or come to the
>organizing meeting Wednesday, January 20th, place and time TBA.
>
>       Ratifying the Kyoto treaty will not bring an end to global
>warming.  It is only the first step-- a critical step--  on a long journey
>towards a truly sustainable society. But if the US fails to ratify, then
>we are headed down a much darker road, one in which we abdicate all
>political responsibility as stewards of the land into which we were born.
>Fighting to stop global warming, as much as for any cause of the century,
>
>is fighting for a just society---  but so far, our side has simply not
>shown up.  I am asking for your help in changing that.
>
>                                       regards,
>
>                                       Eban Goodstein
>
>
>
>*************************      ***     *************************
>
>Eban Goodstein
>Associate Professor                    v       503-768-7626
>Department of Economics                        f       503-768-7611
>Lewis and Clark College                        e       eban@...
>PortLand, OR 97219
>
>
**************************
Cathleen Fogel
Environmental Studies Dept.
University of California
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
cafogel@...
**************************




Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

Another horror likely to become a trend...

Andy

Forward:


Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 18:35:40 -0600 (CST)


STORM SPARKS MAJOR NUCLEAR ALERT AT PLANT

A FULL-SCALE emergency was declared at a Scots nuclear station when fierce
winds knocked out the power to cool its reactors.   Last night, the plant
remained shut after bosses pressed the alarm button on Sunday.

They couldn't restart the back-up generators, vital to keep the reactors'
two cores from overheating.

Frightened staff were called from their homes and battled for five hours to
manually try to reset the safety systems before the cores went "critical".
A boss was also rushed under police escort to Hunterston B, in Ayrshire, it
was claimed.

The astonishing situation - sparking fears of a Chernobyl-type reactor
meltdown - happened after storms took out the national grid twice in the
space of 12 hours.

The first time - at 11pm on Saturday - the emergency back-up generators in
the nuclear plant switched on automatically.

But there were not enough staff on duty to manually reset them before the
grid went down a second time at 11am on Sunday - leaving plant bosses
helpless.

An investigation is being carried out by the Nuclear Installations
Inspectorate.

A spokeswoman said last night: "Two of our inspectors were called in as
soon as the alarm was raised on Sunday and our investigations continue.

"There was no power to the system that cools the reactor for a number of
hours and we do consider this a serious incident."

It's a major embarrassment for Scottish Nuclear, who claim their safety
systems cover all eventualities.

Roseanna Cunningham, the SNP's environment spokeswoman, said: "Holiday
period or not, you can't afford to take risks with nuclear energy.

"Questions must be answered on why Hunterston B was understaffed."

Earlier this year, the back-up at Dounreay, in Caithness, failed when a
digger cut power cables.

That disaster was one of the reasons Scots Secretary Donald Dewar ordered
the plant be closed.

A Hunterston worker, who asked not to be named, said the situation had been
terrifying.

He said: "The sirens were sounding all over the plant and there were
police, fire and ambulance crew arriving. We didn't know what was going on.

"It is the most serious incident I have ever seen."

Kevin Dunion, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, called for a full
inquiry into the role of the management.

He said people would be "astounded" to find fail safe procedures hadn't
been worked out for the holiday.

A spokeswoman for Scottish Nuclear said at no time was any member of the
public or staff at risk.

Meanwhile, after days of bad weather, Hogmanay revellers have been warned
to wrap up to avoid tragedy at this year's huge outdoor parties.

The alert comes after Perth teenager Sally Greig froze to death walking
home from a festive party.

Ambulance services are on standby amid fears that temperatures could plunge
to as low as 2C (34F).

Police urged party-goers to make sure they wear layers of warm clothes on
Edinburgh's streets.

Around 150,000 people are expected to crowd the city-centre party, which is
ticket-only.

Weather experts say Edinburgh will be colder than Glasgow, where
temperatures will reach around 3C (36F).

Last night, north Scotland was battered by more storms, with the islands,
Aberdeen and Dundee being worst hit with winds of up to 65mph.

And more than 4000 families were still without electricity yesterday as
power bosses faced calls to quit.

Today, the weather will be dull across Scotland, with strong winds,
particularly in the north-east. It will be mild everywhere.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
News | Sport | What's On | Link-Up | About Us | Front Page
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
  (c) Copyright Daily Record and Sunday Mail Ltd.,
Anderston Quay, Glasgow, Scotland, G3 8DA.


************************************************************************


Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

Press Release Monday, January 4, 1999

Internet activists barricade themselves inside Shell Oil HQ

January 4 1999
Activists sent the first pictures out via the internet of their office
occupation this morning. In a tactical use of website environmental and
human rights campaigners have released news and images of their protest
against Shell. Click here to see http://www.kemptown.org/shell

Undercurrents productions, Britains only alternative video news service has
exclusive coverage with a video journalist inside the barricaded office.

At 9am protesters began occupying management offices in Shell-Mex House,
The Strand, London. The activists are barricaded into the offices and are
refusing to leave. This is in solidarity with indigenous resistance to oil
giant Royal Dutch/Shell in Nigeria and to give a foretaste of direct action
to come.

Activists said
"Today is the first day of work in the last year before the new Millenium.
The activists have chosen this day to send a message to Shell and other
transnational corporations that 1999 will be a year of increased
globalisation of protest, and the turning point that they say will see the
end of corporate dominance."

January 4 is also Ogoni Day, celebrated since 1993 when Shell was forced
from Ogoni in the oil-rich Niger Delta by non-violent mass mobilisation.
Throughout 1997-98, occupations of oil facilities by the Ijaw ethnic group
of southern Nigeria have grown in number and degree, cutting Nigeriaís oil
output by up to one third. Now the Ijaws have told Shell and other oil
companies to quit their land by January 11, 1999 - or face eviction by the
people. Killings by Shell-backed troops have already claimed the lives of
at least 20 Ijaws since the first deadline expired on 30 December.

A spokesperson said, 'The violent militarisation of the oil producing areas
in Nigeria are indicative of the global militarisation of commerce.
Moreover, oil industry-derived climate change is causing more global
disruption, and restructuring and oil mergers are causing massive job
losses. Shell and the other oil transnationals are bad news for everyone
ultimately even for shareholders. We call for no more oil.'
ends

Further information is available from (+44) (0171) 561 9146
Video footage of the protest, shot inside the building contact
undercurrents on 0966 137925 (reporter inside) or office on 01865 203661









the action | press release | background | the facts | links




<Picture>It's now 11:00 and our group has been discovered by the police and
shell employees, We've successfully up loaded web pages from within our
barricaded office.

We have begun negotiation with shell executives...


<Picture>  <Picture>   <Picture>

Images of us finally connecting to the web to upload the pages and the
barricades inside of the occupied office...


------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE 1



<Picture>Well it's 9:30, we're occupying the Shell-Mex house in London,
barricaded securely at doors and windows. This is the headquarters of Shell
UK, the UK division of one of the most aggressive and violent of oil
companies. One team is in the 9th floor office of Chris Fay, the outgoing
boss of Shell UK. Another team is secure in the 4th floor office of Malcolm
Brinded, his successor.

<Picture>This is quite a special day. For a start, it's the first working
day of the last year of the millenium, and we're marking the fact that,
faced with the threat of global climate change, the oil industry has had
its day. Indeed, this is going to be a year when the oil industry, and
transnational corporations generally, face increasing resistance from
people around the world. A major focus of protest will be on June 18th
1999, when widespread demonstrations will be taking place in financial
centres, from London to New York to Mexico City. More details on
www.gn.apc.org/june18


IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
		                   UNDERCURRENTS
	                   training***alternative news video***archive
                                  16b Cherwell Street, Oxford, OX4 1BG, England
        Tel:  +44 (0)1865 203 661 Production / training    +44 (0)1865 203
662 Distribution
  +44 (0)1865 203 663 Archive    Fax:  +44 (0) 1865 243562   e-mail:
underc@...

underc@...

<http://www.undercurrents.org>

              WE ARE ALWAYS SEEKING PROTEST FOOTAGE FROM AROUND THE WORLD
	               CONTACT US AND GET THE FOOTAGE SEEN!!!
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

UKOOA (UK Oil Overthrow Association)

News release 9am Monday, January 4, 1999

Shell: Head Office Occupied
Activists give taste of protests to come

At 9am environmental and human rights protesters began occupying management
offices in Shell-Mex House, The Strand, London. The activists are barricaded
into the offices and are refusing to leave. This is in solidarity with
indigenous resistance to oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell in Nigeria and to give a
foretaste of direct action to come.

Today is the first day of work in the last year before the new Millenium. The
activists have chosen this day to send a message to Shell and other
transnational corporations that 1999 will be a year of increased globalisation
of protest, and the turning point that they say will see the end of corporate
dominance.

January 4 is also Ogoni Day, celebrated since 1993 when Shell was forced from
Ogoni in the oil-rich Niger Delta by non-violent mass mobilisation. Throughout
1997-98, occupations of oil facilities by the Ijaw ethnic group of southern
Nigeria have grown in number and degree, cutting Nigeria’s oil output by up to
one third. Now the Ijaws have told Shell and other oil companies to quit their
land by January 11, 1999 - or face eviction by the people. Killings by
Shell-backed troops have already claimed the lives of at least 20 Ijaws since
the first deadline expired on 30 December.

The protesters in London are demanding compliance with the Ijaw’s demands to
leave their traditional lands and for an end to corporate-backed military
repression. Live footage of the protest will be relayed directly from Shell’s
own offices to an internet website at
<<http://www.kemptown.org/shell>www.kemptown.org/shell> using a lap-top
computer
and mobile phone.

A spokesperson said,  “The violent militarisation of the oil producing
areas in
Nigeria are indicative of the global militarisation of commerce. Moreover, oil
industry-derived climate change is causing more global disruption, and
restructuring and oil mergers are causing massive job losses. Shell and the
other oil transnationals are bad news for everyone  ultimately even for
shareholders. We call for no more oil.”

Further information is available from (+44) (0171) 561 9146
Video footage of the protest, shot inside the building, may be available from
(+44) (0) 966 137925. You can also check out the website at
<<http://www.kemptown.org/shell>www.kemptown.org/shell>

ends



--
Monica Wilson     Essential Action
P.O. Box 19405, Washington, DC 20036, 202.387.8030, 202.234.5176 (fax)
mwilson@...     http://www.essential.org/action/shell/

Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

--
----------------------------------------------------
anne-marie_moran@...
m166110@...

ICQ# 22773105 or,
*E-mail direct 22773105@...

Think Globally - Bike locally!
----------------------------------------------------

***********************************************
WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Rainforest Fails to Absorb Excess Carbon During El Nino
***********************************************
Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
      http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives
	 http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation

12/22/98
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE
A recently published study by Woods Hole Research Laboratory in the
journal Nature suggests that the Brazilian Amazon actually releases
millions of tons of carbon during El Nino years, the reverse of what
is usually the case--and some 2/7 of what it usually fixes in a year.
This may have tremendous implications for global climate change.
g.b.

*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title:   Rain Forest Fails to Absorb Excess Carbon during El Nino
Source:  Associated Press
Status:  Copyright 1998, contact source for permission to reprint
Date:    December 17, 1998
Byline:  JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA AP Science Writer

Instead of inhaling extra carbon dioxide, Brazil's rain forest does
the opposite in an El Nino year, exhaling millions of tons of the
heat-trapping gas and potentially adding to global warming, scientists
say.

The rain forest, under normal conditions, acts as the "lungs" of the
planet. Its dense canopy of trees stretches for thousands of miles,
releasing oxygen and absorbing as much as 700 million tons of carbon
dioxide a year.

But when global climate conditions are scrambled by El Nino and the
rain forest becomes parched, scientists from the Woods Hole Research
Laboratory in Massachusetts determined the Amazon Basin produces as
much as 200 million tons of excess carbon dioxide a year.

The calculations by Hanqin Tian and others are in today's journal
Nature. The study examined three El Nino episodes from 1980 to 1994.
It did not include measurements of the record-setting El Nino in 1997-
98, but the trend is clear, researchers said.

"In El Nino years, which bring hot and dry weather to much of the
Amazon, the ecosystems act as a source of carbon," Tian said.

Scientists say understanding the planet's fluctuating carbon cycle is
a key step in accurately predicting -- and managing -- global warming
in the 21st century.

Some studies show global temperatures have been creeping up by as much
as one degree as industry, traffic, deforestation and other human
activities generate more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases --
so called because they trap heat from the sun.

Many natural features on the planet act as "carbon sinks" to absorb
excess carbon and help to stabilize the planet's climate. The oceans
and the rain forests absorb the largest shares, along with tundra and
rangeland.

But not always.

During an El Nino, a vast pool of warm water expands in the equatorial
Pacific. It upsets weather patterns around the world. In the Amazon,
it triggers severe droughts.

Under such severe stress, the forest can't adequately photosynthesize
and store carbon dioxide, Tian said.

His results correspond with the results of carbon cycle simulation
developed at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, which developed a
computer model showing the Amazon acting as a carbon source during
three El Nino episodes between 1982-94.

Researchers at Max Planck said the Woods Hole study is based on
limited field measurements in a small sampling area, and failed to
answer the fundamental question of what is canceling the rain forest's
role as a carbon sink.

"Such understanding is crucial for long-term predictions," said Colin
Prentice, who with Planck colleague Jon Lloyd reviewed the new study
for Nature.

Several groups of scientists are trying to understand the world's
carbon cycle.

Last week, researchers launched a three-year study to find the
"missing sink" to account for lower-than-expected carbon dioxide
levels in the Northern Hemisphere. A likely suspect: trees that have
regrown in previously logged forests and farmland.

"Something in the Northern Hemisphere is sucking up the carbon," said
climatologist Kevin Gurney of Colorado State University. "The missing
sink isn't new, but where it is located and how it works are still
unresolved."

Because of the hemisphere's large cities and industrialization, carbon
dioxide levels are expected to be higher. But measured carbon
emissions have been 2 billion tons lower than expected in recent
years.


###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###
This document is a PHOTOCOPY for educational, personal and non-
commercial use only.  Recipients should seek permission from the
source for reprinting.  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
Conservation Archives at URL= http://forests.org/
Networked by Ecological Enterprises, grbarry@...

**************************************************************

Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
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At 12:20 AM -0800 12/22/98, Robert Cherwink wrote:
>Climate Crisis

>It is reported that the number of icebergs passing down
>by Newfoundland's Green Bank, driven by the Labrador current,
>has been increasing steadily these past 10 or so years. The
>oil rigs there are especially vulnerable and take complex
>precautions as the number has risen from 400-500 bergs/year
>to over 1000.  Some may not worry too much about oil rigs but,
>if the flow of bergs continues to grow in number, the route of
>the Gulf Stream could be shifted away from NW Europe and we'll
>snow for every Christmas thereafter........
>
>Can someone reassure me that this information is phoney?
>
>danny
>daaf@...
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Please reply to: Danny Fagandini <daaf@...>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------



I'm not sure about the number of bergs (likely the quoted figure *is*
accurate), but the situation of throwing Europe into an ice era is very
real. It happened 12,700 years ago, causing something called the
Younger-Dryas event. I talk a lot about the Madhouse Century triggering the
catastrophic *beginning* of the last ice age 120,000 years ago, but this
same ice age ended with incredible, violent jerks and spasms as well.

12,700 years ago, as the ice age glaciation was retreating from its peak at
20,000 years ago and the continents were warming, something happened to
throw Europe into a 1,300 year reprise of glacial conditions while North
America continued to warm! It took about ten years to switch from warming
to glaciers. It is believed that major influxes of fresh water suddenly
burst into the North Atlantic diluting the surface waters. This dilution
halted the crucial, Europe-warming, Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Drift
current, causing Europe to suddenly freeze.

The Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Drift moves up the east North American coast
because it is *pulled* northward. As the surface waters get colder and
saltier as they pass Greenland, this water then sinks, pulling the conveyor
belt of warm water up to fill the gap. However, when this surface water
gets diluted to the point where it doesn't sink anymore, the entire current
stops! The warm tropical waters don't make it up the coast of North
America, and so they don't warm the dry, frigid Canadian air anymore as it
passes over the Atlantic on its path to Europe. So Europe gets the same
cold, dry air that Canada gets.

Normally, by the time this air reaches Europe, it is warm and moist and
makes Europe a habitable place. But if you look at a world map, you see
that Europe is at the same latitudes as Canada. Canada has only 30 million
citizens. Europe has 700 million. Rome is at the same latitude as Chicago!
Rome is not very far south at all, and yet, it is in *southern* Europe. The
reason for this difference IS this current. Canada has about the same
amount of agricultural land as Europe, so it is just the nice warm, rainy
European air that makes the difference.

There are two theories I've read about the source of this fresh water
during the Younger-Dryas period. Major iceberg calving off of
Greenland/North America is one. The other is that it came from the Great
Lakes region. It was at this time one giant lake, Lake Agassiz, and it had
been draining into the Gulf of Mexico. Probably a giant glacial sea wall
blocked off the St. Lawrence drainage. Obviously, at a certain point this
changed to the situation we have today. It is thought that the glacial sea
wall broke up and that massive amounts of Great Lakes water suddenly poured
through the St. Lawrence into the North Atlantic.

That's what happened 12,700 years ago. It took 1,300 years to change out of
that state and resume warming. Obviously, in a warming world, more ice is
going to break off into the ocean and dilute it. So it is not at all
far-fetched to believe it can happen again. In fact, it appears to be
happening. While I still haven't read it, Prof. William Calvin, U of Wash,
a year ago had a cover story in the Atlantic magazine (how ironic) on this
subject. Called the Great Climate Flip-Flop, you can read it online at his
web site:

http://WilliamCalvin.com/1990s/1998AtlanticClimate.htm

I am very concerned about this situation.

Andy Caffrey


Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

>Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 09:39:24 +1100
>From: Friends of the Earth Fitzroy <foefitzroy@...>
>Subject: [Fwd: EXXON-Mobil Day of Action--March 10, 1999]

>> December 20, 1998
>> To: All FoE Member Groups and Affiliates
>> From: Roberta Cowan, IFI Coordinator/Interim FoEI Campaigns
>> RE: EXXON-Mobil Day of Action
>> ******************************************************************
>>
>> Dear Friends,
>>
>> Mark your calendars because MARCH 10, 1999 will be the EXXON-MOBIL
>> DAY OF ACTION!!!  All those FoE groups working on Climate Change and
>> any other groups are invited to plan your MARCH 10TH day of ACTION
>> demonstrating against these oil industries.  Our FoEI message is
>> that: "EXXON-Mobil and the oil industry are blocking progress on the
>> combat against catastrophic climate change."
>>
>> FoE England,Whales & Northern Ireland (EWNI), as the lead FoE member
>> group on Climate Change, will be preparing material for your
>> information but we will try and coordinate what FoE member groups
>> will be doing and international press work through the secretariat.
>>
>> Let me know that you are planning your MARCH 10th EXXON-Mobil DAY OF
>> ACTION.  There's lots of time to plan your event or demonstration so
>> let's try and get EVERY FoE Group and Affiliate involved!
>>
>> Looking forward to hearing from you!
>>
>> With Best Wishes for a Happy New Year!
>>
>> Roberta Cowan
>

Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

From: Steve Pedery <steve.pedery@...>
Subject:      Can't stand the heat - New Scientist


  An editorial giving good overview of 1998's bizarre heat and the ongoing
  climate negotiations from the British journal "New Scientist".

  Steve P.

  New Scientist
  December 19, 1998

  Can't stand the heat

  Fred Pearce

  It was the warmest year on record, and everyone would like to blame El Nino.
  But even the energy giants suspect there's more to it than that

  WHEN Al Gore claimed that this July was the warmest for 600 years,
  climatologists accused the American Vice-President of understatement. "It's
  not just July," says David Parker of Britain's Meteorological Office. "Every
  month until September was the warmest on record."

  In the first three-quarters of 1998, the world was 0.64 degrees C hotter than
  the average over the same months from 1951 to 1990, and considerably warmer
  than the second hottest year, 1997. Thermometer records, which go back some
  130 years, and tree rings and ice cores from earlier times, corroborate the
  claim that we've seen nothing like it since at least the Middle Ages.

  The causes of this year's exceptional heat, and much of the wild weather that
  came with it, were twofold: first, the continuing greenhouse effect, which
  has led to record temperatures throughout the 1980s and 1990s; and second,
  the wash of warm water across the Pacific caused by the most intense outbreak
  for at least 50 years of the phenomenon known as El Nino, which reached its
  peak early in the year.

  El Nino played havoc with normal climate patterns, triggering forest fires,
  floods, disease, famine and widespread disruption to fisheries and
  agriculture (see map). There were beneficiaries, too, such as Darwin's
  finches on the Galapagos Islands, which went into reproductive overdrive as
  rain fell on the normally arid islands, and Californian surfers who enjoyed
  12-metre waves brought about by a reversal of prevailing winds.

  El Nino starts as a build-up of heat in the western Pacific and results in a
  large body of warm water moving eastwards across the ocean. What causes this
  sudden flux is hotly disputed. William Gray, an oceanographer at Colorado
  State University, suggested this year that the great landmass of Eurasia
  absorbs so much solar heat that from time to time it releases some into the
  Pacific as a kind of safety valve. One theory is that, as the world becomes
  warmer, this safety valve operates more often and more intensely - as it
  appears to have in the past 20 years.

  Parker says that El Nino roughly doubled the effect of global warming this
  year. But he suggests that the greenhouse effect may itself have made El Nino
  more intense. However, Gray points out that El Nino has always been more
  active in some decades than others.

  Whatever the truth, the sweltering heat added urgency to negotiations on
  limiting industrial emissions of greenhouse gases, which most scientists
  agree are contributing to global warming. Gore used his "hot July" theme to
  propose a dollar 3.6 billion programme of tax credits to encourage energy
  efficiency - part of a plan to implement targets agreed at the UN climate
  summit in Kyoto in 1997. But Congress, under pressure from industry, easily
  stonewalled the plans of the administration and reduced the programme to just
  dollar 1 billion.

  In the run-up to the Buenos Aires climate conference in November, however,
  some sections of the corporate world appeared to be adopting a greener
  agenda. The oil giant BP pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 10
  per cent by 2010. Investment in solar energy soared. And an increasing number
  of companies backed plans for a global trade in permits to emit greenhouse
  gases. As the spectre of recession closes in on the world economy, some
  venture that this "hot air" could soon be the most profitable commodity in
  town.

  For more science news see http://www.newscientist.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.
-----------------------
Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction):
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 00:11:35 -0500
From: Mike Ewall <catalyst@...>


CANADIAN TEMPERATURES
OBLITERATE RECORDS
___________________________________________

         While the U.S. has experienced some hot temperatures this
summer, and the world as a whole has seen new global average
temperature marks (see WIND ENERGY WEEKLY #810, August 17), the
weather has been even more striking in Canada, according to the
Toronto Star.

         The newspaper reported recently that the average
temperature nationwide for the first six months of 1998 was 2.7
degrees C (4.9 degrees F) above normal, and July was 1.6 C (2.9
F) above average.  To put these numbers into perspective, they
mean that Canada is already experiencing the level of warming
that experts have projected for the year 2100 worldwide (an
increase of 1-3.5 C).

         David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment
Canada, said the year's temperature pattern so far is "quite
remarkable," adding that variations of a fraction of a degree are
typical and that this year's are "like, off the map."

         The rise in temperatures is, however, consistent with
some climate models, which predict that larger increases in
average temperature will take place in the higher latitudes.

         A similar impact appears to be taking place in Alaska,
reported the New York Times September 9.  There, "hundreds of
glaciers are retreating" and "over thousands of miles, big
patches of forest are drowning and turning gray as the ground
sinks under them and swamp water floods them," the article said.
" . . .  Roadside utility poles, destabilized by the melting,
lean at crazy angles.  So do trees, creating a phenomenon known
as drunken forest."

         Scientists at the University of Alaska, the article
added, say warming has totaled as much as 5 degrees F over the
past 30 years in Alaska, Siberia, and northwestern Canada.

         Interestingly, the effect of the pronounced temperature
change appears to have been minimal as far as politics is
concerned.  Canadian fuels groups, the Toronto Star said
September 8, continue to argue that climate change is a non-issue
and to oppose Canada's commitment to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.

from WIND ENERGY WEEKLY, Vol. 17, #816, 28 September 1998, published by the
American Wind Energy Association.
AWEA, 122 C Street, NW, 4th Floor
Washington, DC 20001, USA
phone (202) 383-2500, fax (202) 383-2505
email <windmail@...>
<http://www.econet.org/awea>.

Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.

Hi Andy,


	 ...I'm looking for a statistic that I saw some time ago: the number

of miles per year that trees would have to "migrate" away from the

equator given such-and-such annual rise in temperature. I'm forwarding

you and old e-mail message to Patrick at RAN that explains what I'd

like to do with that.


More soon,


Randy


Randy,

	 I started digging through the UN IPCC report of 1995 to look up the
tree issue. They focus their concern on the issue of the changing
"geographical distribution of biomes." From "Climate Change 1995: The
Science of Climate Change" (Contribution of Working Group I to the
Second Assessment Report of the IPCC):


	 "The ecosystems of the world are usually classified into 15-20
'biomes', each characterised by the dominance of one or more
structural/functional types of plant." (p. 458)


	 "Faced with climate change, species presumably can (in the right
conditions) spread at least as fast as they have done before. Species
spread (migration) involves a number of factors including dispersal,
regeneration on a suitable site, growth to maturity and seed
production. Dispersal seems not to have been a major limitation in the
past, at least to the major species detected over the long time periods
represented in the paleo-record... Future migrations may be very
different. For example, the modern landscape provides fewer
regeneration sites. Migrating species in the past exploited recently
disturbed sites, whereas now natural vegetation is often fragmented and
confined to undisturbed sites." (p. 463)


	 "Climate changes implied by the IS92 emission scenarios call for a
migration rate up to ten times faster than historically observed for
many taxa... large areas of forests might die (e.g. due to heat stress,
drought and fire) and be temporarily replaced by shrublands. This would
result in different structural and functional properties. The
transition being accompanied by changes in albedo, canopy roughness and
rooting depth, reductions in NPP, and losses of plant and soil carbon
to the atmosphere. The larger and more rapid the climate change, the
greater the chance that effects of [this] type will occur." (p. 463)


	 "Rates of species spread in response to Holocene [the current,
interglacial period] climate changes have been reconstructed by mapping
pollen data... They range from 50-2000 m/yr for most woody species in
Europe and North America." (p. 463)



From "Ancient Forests of the Pacific Northwest" by Elliott A. Norse


	 "During the last glaciation, trees that now dominate boreal forests in
upper Michigan and central Ontario occupied the southern United States.
After the glaciers began to retreat, various tree species moved
northward from their refuges at different rates, with some still
migrating after 15,000 years, a rate far slower than the rate at which
climate changes. Tree species advanced an average of perhaps 300 meters
per year, about ten times slower than they would need to move to keep
pace with advancing isotherms (lines of equal temperature) in coming
decades.

	 "If Westside conifers move at roughly comparable rates, individuals at
the southern part of their distributions will be overtaken by warmer
zones. As they are pushed past their physiological tolerances, they
will cease growing, and finally, when conditions become stressful
enough, succumb. And although trees are probably better adapted to
withstand normal weather fluctuations than most living things, it seems
unlikely that they will be unscathed by temperatures that will exceed
any in the last 100,000 years.

	 "For species with naturally limited ranges, such as the Port Orford
cedars and Brewer spruces, all individuals could well be overtaken by
unsuitable climates, which would cause extinction. But shifting
climatic zones would be severely damaging even to trees with larger
ranges that are highly adapted to conditions where they live: species
with ecotypic variation, such as Douglas-firs and sugar pines. Large
mortalities could occur, eliminating important genetic diversity. At
the very least, their ranges would shrink in the south far more than
they would expand in the north.

	 "Another problem that species will face on their forced march is a
change in soils. Climate affects soil formation by determining the
rates of weathering of parent material, leaching..., and decomposition
of organic material. The distribution of soils is a function of
climate.

	 "But the rate at which soils evolve would probably lag behind the rate
of climate change. After hundreds or thousands of years, soils would
probably reach equilibrium with the new climate. But until then, they
would pose a novel situation for newly arriving plant species. By luck,
some plants might do better, but many more would likely fare worse in
soils to which they are not adapted.

	 "Soils vary geographically for another reason: They are derived from
parent materials that differ from one place to the next. Some species
are adapted to soils with unusual chemical compositions, such as those
derived from serpentine rock. Serpentine is inimical to the growth of
most plants. Its pH is often too acid or too basic, and it usually has
low concentrations of nutrient elements including calcium, nitrogen,
phosphorous, potassium, and molybdenum, as well as high concentrations
of toxic elements such as nickel and chromium. For these reasons,
serpentine soils support unusual communities of plants, many of them
endemics. These plants either require the peculiar chemical mix in
serpentine soils or are tolerant of them but poor competitors with
other plants on less stressful soils.

	 "Serpentine species, such as jeffrey pine, Port Orford cedar, Baker's
cypress, Siskiyou butterflyweed, and Howell's fawn lily, would face
special problems as climatic zones shifted. Outcroppings of serpentine
soils are discontinuous, like islands. They are common in the Klamath
and Siskiyou mountains, but the nearest Westside serpentine soils to
the north lie some 400 miles away in Snohomish County, Washington. If
serpentine species cannot bridge the huge gulf between southwest Oregon
and northwest Washington, they will be unable to escape as the climate
changes. Extinction of many species is likely." (p. 230-231)


	 "Before the Pleistocene ice ages, Europe was about as rich in tree
species as North America; now it is much poorer. Paleobotanists believe
that the Alps, Pyrenees, and Mediterranean Sea, which run east-west,
prevented many species from migrating southward and northward during
climatic shifts. Unable to escape, many trees became extinct. In North
America, most natural barriers run north-south, so climatic shifts
eliminated fewer species. The Columbia is an exception, but there are
new barriers that did not exist in the Pleistocene..."




from "Global Warming: The Complete Briefing" by John Houghton (co-chair
of the Scientific Assessment Working Group of the IPCC):


	 "Trees are long-lived and take a long time to reproduce. Because it is
not easy for them to respond quickly to climate change, the world's
forests are likely to be the most affected of the world's ecosystems.
Since our forests cover about a quarter of the world's total land area,
the impact of climate change on the world's forests is particularly
important.

	 "Many trees are surprisingly sensitive to the average climate in which
they develop. The environmental conditions (eg temperature and
precipitation) under which a species can exist and reproduce is known
as its niche. ...under some conditions a change as small as 1°C in
annual average temperature can make a substantial difference to a
tree's productivity.... This will be particularly the case in the
boreal forests of the northern hemisphere where, as trees become less
healthy, they will be more prone to pests, die-back and forest fires.
One estimate projects that, under a doubled CO<smaller>2
</smaller>scenario, up to 65 per cent of the current boreal forested
area will be affected." (p. 127)


	 "...forests represent a large store of carbon: 80 per cent of
above-ground and 40 per cent of below-ground terrestrial carbon is in
forests... Tropical deforestation due to human activities is probably
releasing between 1 and 2 Gt of carbon into the atmosphere each year.
If because of the rate of climate change, substantial stress and
die-back occurs especially in boreal forests a release of carbon will
occur... estimates as high as 240 Gt over the next century have been
quoted." (p. 131)




Andy Caffrey

Director, Climate Action NOW!

P.O. Box 324

Redway, CA  95560


707/923-2114

can@...

Climate Action NOW! (both under construction)

http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html

http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html


Donations go a long way.

Date:         Thu, 10 Dec 1998 11:32:59 -0800
Sender: Sierra GW Alerts
               <CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-ALERTS@...>
From: Steve Pedery <steve.pedery@...>
Subject:      NY Times - Heatwaves becoming more frequent and severe


  Another disturbing GW story -- this time on research showing that both the
  intensity and severity of heat waves has been increasing in the 20th century.
   Skeptics often argue that since a great deal of recent warming has been
  occurring at night, climate change is nothing to worry about.  This story
  points out that nighttime heat is what actually makes heatwaves lethal.  It
  also points out specifically that while "urban heat islands" (the asphalt and
  concrete in cities) may be able to explain some of the warming, it cannot
  explain it all.

  Steve Pedery
  Sierra Club Global Warming Campaign
  steve.pedery@...



  The New York Times
  December 10, 1998, Thursday, Late Edition - Final

  Harmful Heat Is More Frequent, Especially at Night, Study Finds
  By WILLIAM K. STEVENS

  Extreme summer heat and humidity of the kind most threatening to health have
  become more frequent in the United States over the last half century, two
  Federal researchers say.

  According to their study, in today's issue of the journal Nature, the
  frequency of extremely hot, humid days and of heat waves lasting several days
  increased substantially from 1949 to 1995. In terms of the threat to health,
  however, another finding was especially significant: The increase in heat
  stress was greater at night than in the daytime.

  Many experts say that extremely high temperature and humidity over successive
  nights is a crucial factor in heat-related deaths. When nearly 600 people
  died in a heat wave in Chicago in 1995, for example, many of the deaths were
  attributed to an unremitting combination of record high nighttime heat and
  humidity that allowed no respite from daytime heat stress.

  Some studies have shown that extreme summer heat has more impact on people's
  health than any other kind of severe weather and that the elderly are most
  vulnerable.

  "If these climate trends continue, they may pose a public health problem,
  particularly as there are increasing numbers of elderly people," wrote the
  authors of the study, Dr. Dian J. Gaffen and Rebecca J. Ross, research
  meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Air
  Resources Laboratory in Silver Spring, Md.

  The apparent trend toward more extreme heat generally coincides with a
  warming of the earth's surface in recent decades, globally and in the United
  States. The dominant view among scientists is that at least some of this
  warming has been caused by emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon
  dioxide, which is emitted by the burning of coal, oil, natural gas and wood.
  The earth's average surface temperature, which has risen one degree in the
  last century, is projected to rise two to six degrees over the next century,
  further increasing humidity and making heat waves more frequent and intense.
  By comparison, surface temperature has risen five to nine degrees since the
  depth of the ice age 18,000 to 20,000 years ago.

  While the increasing frequency of extreme heat and humidity cannot be
  directly linked to the warming trend, Dr. Gaffen said it was "consistent with
  what is predicted in the global warming scenario."

  Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center, agreed. "I
  think these are the types of conditions that will become more frequent and
  more intense when they do occur" if the climate warms as projected, Mr. Karl
  said. "We've already seen examples of that this past year," he added,
  referring to last summer's heat wave in Texas.

  By and large, Mr. Karl said, the Gaffen-Ross findings "seem to be consistent
  with what we know from other analyses." He said that if data through 1998
  were included in the study, "I'm sure they would find even stronger trends."

  Worldwide, the last two years have been the two warmest on record.

  Dr. Gaffen and Ms. Ross had for some time been studying global distributions
  of temperature and water vapor, and they found an increasing trend of rising
  humidity accompanying rising temperatures. So, Dr. Gaffen said, they decided
  to see whether this meant that extremes of heat and humidity were also
  increasing.

  They defined "extreme" as the highest 15 percent of temperature and humidity
  measurements, as recorded every three hours around the clock in July and
  August from 1961 through 1990. This threshold, they report, is "closely
  correlated" with levels above which, other researchers say, mortality
  increases sharply.

  Dr. Gaffen and Ms. Ross analyzed records at 113 Government weather stations
  around the country, mainly at airports, in search of information on two
  variables: the combination of temperature and humidity that meteorologists
  call "apparent temperature," and temperature alone.

  Apparent temperature is a measure of the combined impact of heat and humidity
  on people and the sensation that results. It is increasing faster than
  temperature alone, the researchers said, because humidity is increasing
  faster. This would be expected in a warmer climate, because more water
  evaporates and the atmosphere can hold more.

  The researchers computed their thresholds of extremity for the average daily
  temperature, the daily maximum temperature and the daily minimum temperature
  for July and August at each weather station. They found that from 1949 to
  1995, the annual frequency of days on which the thresholds were surpassed
  increased at all but 16 of the 113 stations. The increases were largest for
  the minimum "apparent temperature," which basically translates to a measure
  of combined nighttime heat and humidity.

  At some stations, Dr. Gaffen and Ms. Ross found that over the half century,
  the number of nights with extremely high apparent temperatures doubled, to
  about 18 days a year from about 9 days a year in some places. The largest and
  statistically most significant trends were in some of the nation's most
  populated areas, especially from the Middle Atlantic States south to Florida,
  as well as along the West Coast and in big cities in the Southwest. Eight of
  the 15 cities in which the trend was most pronounced were in the Southeast --
  including Miami, which headed the list nationally. The New York metropolitan
  area did not figure in the study.

  Daytime increases were found to be not nearly as dramatic. In fact, the
  upward trend was statistically significant only west of the Rocky Mountains.

  East of the Rockies, the apparent temperature increased more than temperature
  alone. West of the Rockies, where summer humidity increases are less marked,
  the trends of the two variables were similar.

  The investigators defined heat waves as periods of three or four days in which
  the average daily apparent temperature exceeded the top 15 percent threshold.
  On average, they found, each weather station experiences 1.7 three-day heat
  waves and one four-day heat wave a year. In the contiguous United States, the
  number of heat waves increased by 88 percent from 1949 to 1995.

  Two caveats have been attached to the study. To some extent, said Dr. Gaffen
  and Ms. Ross, the rising heat probably reflects increased urbanization; the
  concrete and asphalt in urban areas absorb and retain more heat than rural
  areas. But Ms. Gaffen said that most of the trend cannot be explained this
  way. For one thing, she said, not all the weather stations in the study were
  in urban areas. For another, the researchers looked for but did not find a
  correlation between population growth -- a measure of urbanization -- and
  trends in extreme weather.

  The other caveat was offered by Dr. Laurence S. Kalkstein of the University
  of Delaware, who has long studied heat and health. The threshold of extreme
  heat adopted by the researchers was not selected on the basis of the
  relationship between health and extreme heat, he said. Earlier studies by Dr.
  Kalkstein found that the threshold at which heat begins to kill people varies
  from one city to another. "That's my only disagreement" with the study, he
  said.

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in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.
-----------------------
Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction):
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
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Donations go a long way.

From: Steve Pedery <steve.pedery@...>
Subject:      Wash. Post - Earth warmer now than any time in 12 centuries
To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-ALERTS@...

  Another long-term global warming study that helps to put 20th century warming
  in perspective.  Industry representatives often argue that the warming we're
  experiencing today is just natural variation, and that it has been much
  warmer in the recent past (hundreds of years).  This new study, along with a
  number of others that have come out over the past year, are rapidly sinking
  that argument.

  Steve Pedery
  Sierra Club Global Warming and Energy Program
  steve.pedery@...



  The Washington Post
  December 08, 1998, Tuesday, Final Edition

  Earth at Its Warmest In Past 12 Centuries; Scientist Says Data Suggest Human
  Causes

  Joby Warrick, Washington Post Staff Writer

  The warming of the Earth in this century is without precedent in at least
  1,200 years and cannot be fully explained by any known combination of natural
  forces, one of the federal government's top climate scientists said
  yesterday.

  New research that documents climate change as far back as the Holy Roman
  Empire is strengthening the argument that humans are partly responsible for
  the rising temperatures, said Jonathan Overpeck, head of the paleoclimatology
  program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

  "There is no period that we can recognize in the last 1,200 years that was as
  warm on a global basis," said Overpeck, who presented his findings at a
  meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. "That makes what
  we're now seeing more unusual, and more difficult to explain without turning
  to a 'greenhouse gas' mechanism."

  Overpeck made the assertion as the eastern half of the United States basked
  in an extended December heat wave that has shattered temperature records in
  dozens of cities. Although the warm spell is not, of itself, evidence of
  global warming, a sharp spike in global temperatures in the past two years
  has intensified the debate over humankind's contribution to climate change.

  New scientific findings presented in San Franciso appeared to simultaneously
  add clarity and confusion to the debate. While some researchers reported
  strong signals of human-induced warming in the past century, other scientists
  acknowledged enormous uncertainties that complicate the task of forecasting
  climate change in the future.

  One of the speakers, James E. Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute
  for Space Studies, argues that scientists know too little about the
  complexities of climate, such as changes in cloud cover, to make accurate
  predictions. Hansen, who told a congressional panel in 1988 that the
  greenhouse effect "is here," caused a stir a month ago when he wrote about
  those uncertainties in a prominent journal, The Proceedings of the National
  Academy of Sciences.

  "The forcings that drive long-term climate change are not known with an
  accuracy sufficient to define future climate change," Hansen wrote.

  Overpeck, in his speech, said this century's warmer temperatures are
  appearing more anomalous as scientists improve their understanding of climate
  change in the past. Not only has the 20th century produced the hottest years
  on record, he said, but the magnitude of change appears to be without
  parallel since at least 800 A.D.

  Until very recently, many scientists believed the Earth underwent a dramatic
  warming in the Middle Ages, beginning around the 9th century and continuing
  until nearly the 14th century. During the "Medieval Warm Period," as it is
  called, temperatures rose throughout Europe and sea ice retreated in the
  North Atlantic, allowing the Vikings to briefly colonize Greenland. Global
  warming skeptics frequently cite the era as one of the best known, historic
  examples of natural climate variation -- proof, they say, that climate
  changes without help from people, and that a little warming might even be
  beneficial.

  But new research suggests the Medieval Warm Period never really happened,
  Overpeck said. Based on evidence from ancient tree rings, glaciers and other
  "proxy" measurements of past climate, the thaw appears to have been limited
  to northern latitudes in Europe and North America, while other parts of the
  globe saw little change in temperature. The apparent cause of Europe's
  warming was a change in ocean currents, he said.

  "Our study of the Medieval Warm Period supports the likelihood that no known
  natural phenomenon can explain the record 20th century warmth," Overpeck
  said. "Twentieth century global warming is a reality and should be taken
  seriously."

  The average temperature at the Earth's surface has risen about 1 degree
  Fahrenheit since the 1880s, with many of the century's warmest years
  occurring in the past decade. Scientists predict 1998 will surpass 1997 as
  the warmest year since record-keeping began.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
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***************************************



-----------------------
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.
-----------------------
Andy Caffrey
Director, Climate Action NOW!
P.O. Box 324
Redway, CA  95560

707/923-2114
can@...
Climate Action NOW! (both under construction):
http://www2.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bicycle/128/index.html
http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html

Donations go a long way.