WEB RESOURCES: Links to Environmentally-conscious World Wide Web sites.

(March 1996):

Little Known Facts

88% of the members of Congress who tried to weaken water standards in 1994 had bottled water delivered to their Capitol Hill offices. From 1992 to 1994, close to 36 million people received water from systems violating EPA drinking water standards, and more than 80 million from systems violating monitoring and reporting rules. (Sierra Club, July/ August 1995)

Approximately half the state of Maine, some 10.5 million acres, the largest forest in the Eastern US, is owned by paper companies. Mechanical harvesters can snip as many trees an hour as a chain saw crew used to fell in a day. The average hourly wage of loggers has dropped, in 1967 dollars, from $3.48 in 1970 to $2.47 in 1990. With today's technology, 100,000 acres of forest support fewer than 50 jobs. Similarly, timber extraction provides 4% of the total employment in the region of Alaska's Tongass National Forest and 1% in the region of California's Sierra Nevada. (Natural Resources Defense Council Amicus Journal, Spring 1996)

More than 126 countries, but not the US, have ratified the UN Convention on Biological Diversity of 1992. The UN just completed a study which estimates that 5,366 animal and 26,106 plant species stand "at significant risk of extinction in the foreseeable future," almost entirely because of human activities. The study recommends the promotion of genetic diversity within species in order to promote robustness of individual species. Ecosystems with a wide variety of species appear better able to withstand environmental disturbances. Since the 1600s scientists have documented 484 animal and 654 plant species extinctions.

Anti-Environmental Bills passed & pending:

Passed by the House and/or Senate:

Utah Wilderness Development, H.R. 1745/S. 884; opens 20.2 million acres of Red Rock wilderness to strip mining, etc.; passed House and Senate committees.

Risk Assessment/Regulatory "Reform", S. 343/H.R. 9; new obstacles to health and safety protections; passed House, stalled in Senate.

Safe Drinking Water Act Rewrite, S. 1316; weakens safeguards for water quality; passed Senate; no House bill yet.

"Takings"/Property Rights, H.R. 925/S. 605 obligates federal government to pay landowners if they are to comply with environmental standards; passed House; in Senate Committee; also part of Endangered Species Act and Clean Water bills.

Stalled but still could happen:

Tongass National Forest Destruction, H.R. 2413/S. 1054; entire 17 million acres for logging mining, etc.; provisions for this are in Interior Appropriations bill.

Superfund Rollback, H.R. 2500/S. 1285; reduces polluters' cleanup obligations and eliminates public accountability; hearings held; before committees of House and Senate.

May have been included in appropriations bills of 1996 (status unknown to this reporter, Churg 3/8/96):

Central Valley Project "Improvement" Act, H.R. 2738; reverses western water policies.

Clean Air Act Repeal, H.R. 479/Senate proposal; repeals the entire 1990 Clean Air Act (House) and restricts public participation (Senate).

Clean Water Act Rollback; H.R. 961/S. 851; reduces or lifts standards for sewage treatment, wetlands, water quality, industrial pollution; agricultural and urban runoff; House approved last May, Senate bill in committee.

Coastal Development Act, H.R. 2100; opens Florida coastal areas to development.

Endangered Species Act Rewrite, H.R. 2275/S. 1364; makes protection of threatened species voluntary; House committee approved, Senate hearings coming.

Farm Bill Rewrite, H.R. 2542/S. 1373; weakens soil and wetlands conservation programs; before House and Senate Agricultural committees; included in Agriculture appropriations?

Grazing Subsidies, H.R. 1713/ S. 1459; continue huge subsidies for grazing on public lands; included in Agri & Interior appropriations?

Mining Giveaway, H.R. 1580/S. 506; gives public lands and natural resources to multinational companies for pittance; included in budget reconciliation bill?

by Antonie Churg, Beach Cities Democratic Club

WEB RESOURCES:

EnviroLink -- The largest on-line environmental information resource on the planet!

ENVIRONEWS -- The EnviroLink News Service's up-to-the minute news listing.

EcoNet @ IGC

(Worldwide links to many organizations trying to save our environment.)

League of Conservation Voters

(Includes the voting records of every member of Congress on the environment. Republican Presidential candidate Bob Dole has a ZERO PERCENT record.)

California League of Conservation Voters

(Focusing on California legislators.)

Sierra Club

(Information on a broad range of environmental issues. Use the Sierra Club's Keyword Search engine to find information from their Web and Gopher sites. Or read the Sierra Club Nuclear Waste Briefs, there's more going on than just Ward Valley. The Right-Wing have even started up a new Pro-nuclear group of fanatics, the "Eagle Alliance"! People will do ANYTHING for Money!)

Sierra Club California Alerts

Greenpeace International

(One of the most-accessed sites on the World Wide Web.)

AFSEEE (Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics)

(Working toward ecologically and economically sustainable forest resources.)

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

(Information concerning nuclear waste issues, including the proposed Ward Valley nuclear dump near Needles, California.)

(The "Environment" button is a depiction of the "Green Earth Movement" button -- an environmental group that was formed at El Camino College, in Torrance, 27 years ago. The button was designed by a student in the Arts Department -- if anyone knows who, please let us know!)

---

For any questions, corrections, additions or comments: press .