THEY'RE STILL AT IT

Congress is in recess till after Labor Day so our representatives can attend
conventions and take a break from the muggy Washington summer.  It's a good
time to collar them at home and tell them what we think of their assault on 
our
natural resources.  After negative public reaction last year, the politicians
are talking nice and green.  But their actions are as dirty and brown as ever.

Last year's battles were mostly about riders -- small poisonous attachments to
big necessary bills.  Voters are not supposed to notice them, and the 
president
is supposed to feel obligated to sign them.  Bill Clinton refused to do so,
which is why the government shut down.  Being a compromiser, however, Clinton
let a nasty rider or two slip through every time there was a confrontation.
One of them, the timber salvage rider, is at this moment allowing an orgy of
unsustainable and irresponsible clear-cutting in our national forests.

Hoping that they'll get through a few more like that, the grinches in Congress
are busily loading on riders again.

The Interior Appropriations Bill is about to go to the Senate bearing a rider
that will stop a sustainable management plan for the Tongass National Forest 
in
Alaska.  The Tongass is the world's largest remaining temperate rainforest,
home to bears, wolves, moose, bald eagles, and the Ketchikan Pulp Company, a
subsidiary of Louisiana-Pacific.

The Alaskan delegation hangs Tongass riders on almost everything.  They always
protect a sweetheart contract that grants exclusive rights to Ketchikan to
clearcut the Tongass.  Local folks who can see the damage keep trying to slow
the logging to sustainable rates and protect the forest's streams, wildlife,
and recreational value, as required by the National Forest Management Act.  
The
riders work to increase the cut, as if there were no use for those publicly
owned trees other than to turn them into private profit as fast as possible.

Another rider currently on the Interior bill would forbid the Interior
Secretary from regulating rights of way on public lands (the point is to
prevent the establishment of roadless areas).  Yet another would keep the
National Park Service from developing guidelines to be sure biological
organisms on public land (such as bacteria that live in Yellowstone's hot
springs) cannot be used or patented by private companies without public 
control
and appropriate payment.

You can see the mentality behind these riders.  They aim to let special
interests exploit public resources at low or no price, and to do it quickly,
while the Gingrich Congress lasts.

The same mentality has produced the "Gingrich Grazing Bill."  Newt blocked
earlier versions of this, which were blatant giveaways, but he has labeled 
this
one a "leadership priority."  Here's what it would do:

- Continue to subsidize the livestock industry with grazing fees so low that
they cost us taxpayers millions of dollars annually in lost revenues.

- Undercut existing regulations designed to protect the soils and waters and
wildlife on grazing lands.

- Create rancher-dominated councils to advise government agencies on land
management decisions.

- Forbid anyone from holding a grazing permit and not using it for grazing.
(This has been one way environmentalists and conservation-conscious ranchers
could protect federal land from overgrazing.)

- Allow ranchers who hold permits to bar citizen access to public lands.

- Allow citizen comment on these matters, but forbid all legal avenues for
public appeal.

If you say anything to your congressperson during this break, tell him or her
what you think of this grazing bill.  Ask why, if it's so important to balance
the budget, we sell grazing rights so far below market price.

Then there is the amazing National Parks Commercialization Act, currently
moving through the Senate.  It would allow corporate sponsorship of national
parks, like corporate sponsorship of the Olympics.  (Coca-Cola proudly brings
you Yosemite National Park!)  So far that's a stand-alone bill, but it will
probably end up as a rider on the Omnibus Parks Bill, which provides for 
better
management of our parks and funds some popular new ones, such as the Presidio
in San Francisco.

Given the riders on it at the moment, if President Clinton wants to sign the
parks bill, he will also have to: subsidize builders of condominiums on the
coast of Florida; allow a developer to grab Forest Service land in Utah (using
the coming Olympics as an excuse); trade unlogged public land in Arkansas to
the Weyerhaeuser Corporation in exchange for logged land; give a national
wildlife refuge to the state of Oklahoma; allow streambed mining of a Wild and
Scenic River in Alaska -- and more.  The parks bill is decorated like a
Christmas tree, each rider a shining present to someone who has power over
someone in Congress.

When we contact our elected leaders, here's a demonstration of the sort of
language we might use.  It comes from a recent op-ed in the New York Times
written by Rick Bass, a former timber worker.  He lives in the Yaak valley of
Montana, where he sees the timber salvage rider at work every day.  That 
rider,
he says, "shames our leaders and it shames those of us who allow them to stay
in their bought-and-leveraged positions of power and compromise.  It shames 
the
gift of the soil and the forests that our ancestors bequeathed to us.  If we
allow Congress to perpetuate rather than repeal the clear-cut rider, our
children will deservedly call us corporate pawns and simpletons for giving 
away
the wilderness that should have been passed on to them."

The message to Congress and to the president is simple.  Cut out the riders.
Stop giving away our trees and grasslands and minerals and wildlife and the
beauty of our shared, treasured lands.

(Donella H. Meadows is an adjunct professor of environmental studies at
Dartmouth College.)

Press-release August 22


POLICE VIOLENCE AGAINST ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS


A special   police'   guard   attacked   the  action  camp  of
environmentalists near Rostov Nuclear  Power  plant  today  at
4.00  in  the  morning.  The action camp started on August 10,
close  to  the  nuclear  power  plant  located  10  km.   from
Volgodonsk  city  (Rostov-na-Donu' region).  The Nuclear power
plant is about to be put into operation.

Some activists were injured by  the  police,  medical  experts
confirmed when they arrived to the camp later.

The policemen  threated  environmentalists  with  the guns and
confiscated their camera equipment.  The police' guard  didn't
show their identifications,  the environmentalists didn't know
for sure who this people with guns were.

The construction of nuclear power plant is against law because
it  located  in  10 km from the closest city.  The law require
that the NPP be located 25 km from the closest city.

Community leaders have been protesting the construction  since
the   late   1980s.  Because  of  mass-protests,  the  plant's
construction has been frozen since 1990.


More information:   Vladimir  Sliviak,  International  Nuclear
Campaigner,   Socio-Ecological   Union/ECODEFENSE!,    tel/fax
7-095-2983087, e-mail: 

kedves kornyeszesek,

sajnos kicsit el voltam fogalalva az elmult hetekben, ugyhogy kicsit keson
kapok eszbe, hogy felhivjam a figyelmeteket a HVG mult heti szamara, 
amiben egy egesz allo melleklet szol a FENNTARTHATO FEJLODESrol, Loke 
Andras szerkeszteseben, es  oly rangos irokkal, mint Pinter Laci (akit 
mar sokszor olvastatok a Kornyesz hasabjain).

kellemes olvasast,
diana

ha mar ilyen mormota voltam, es ket hettel kesobb ebredtem fel a 
fenntarthato fejlodesses HVG melleklet ugyeben, akkor mar untanajartam, 
hol is lehet beszerezni regi HVG-ket:  (a vonalban Loke Andras)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Kedves moderator kisasszony, megtisztelo erdeklodesere a kovetkezoket 
valaszolhatom: a fenntarthato fejlodesrol szolo mellekletet tartalmazo 
HVG-szam
 
megszerzeset ket helyen lehet megkiserelni. Az egyik a HVG dokumentacioja, 
(Budapest, Nemetvolgyi ut 62., tel: 1555411, e-mail: ) a masik a 
lap
 
terjesztesi osztalya (Budapest, Szepvolgyi ut 35, tel: 2697082, 
2506593, e-mail: ). 
Oszinte nagyrabecsulessel,
a szerkeszto

Megrendelnem az e-mailunkre a kornyesz informacioit
Cimem: 
Szervezetek nevei: Zold Nok, Ozon Munkacsoport,Napora Klub,
(Levego Mcs.tagszervezetei)
Koszonettel 
J.Halasz Judit

Sziasztok!

 Megalakult a Zoldgomb SK. A klub celja a tomegsport es a kornyezetvedelem 
tamogatasa. A klub iden csak futoversenyeket szervez, de jovore mar triatlon, 
bicikli es biatlonversenyek is talalhatoak lesznek a programok kozot. Ha 
valamelyikotok a sportklub tagja lesz, akkor az egy emblemazott polot, 
reszlete
s 
programfuzetet es kivansagra egyeni edzestervet kap, amit a klub szakemberei 
allitanak ossze szemelyre szoloan. A tagdij 100 Ft/ho. A versenyeken mindenkit 

szeretettel varnak, de a tagoknak kedvezmenyes nevezest biztosit a klub. 
(Egyebkent sem nagy a nevezesi dij : 100-200 Ft versenyenkent)
 A tagdijat es a nevezesi dijakat szetvalogatott papirhulladekban is lehet 
fize
ni 
valamint a klub a kesobbiekben egyebb kornyezetvedo akciokat is tervez.

 A klub elso rendezvenye 1996 szeptember 1. delutan 16 orakor kezdododik a 
Taban-nal. A verseny neve : Varvedo futas. Az esemenyt Buda visszafoglalasanak 

emlekere rendezik. A tavok : 3.3 km ill. 7 km, tobb korosztalyban. A 3.3 
kilometeres futas kezdodik 16 orakor a 7 kilometeres pedig 17.30-kor. 
Mindenkit
 
szeretettel var a Zoldgomb SK.

 Informacio: Zoldgomb Sport Klub, 1024 Bp.,Keleti Karoly u. 15/A. 
tel.:115-34-1
0 
ill. 212-56-41.
 Ha e-mailban szeretnel erdeklodni, azt nalam teheted meg.E-mail cimem : 
. 


   Udv,
     Sajo'