LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS, OH MY! LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS, OH MY!No, these are not in reference to stock market exchange mascots, but to those entities that can gobble up our rights if not corralled.
The lions of law are attempting to slay the safeguards that are protecting endangered species and they should be stopped.
According to the Defenders of Wildlife:
Legislation that would tear apart protections for our endangered wildlife may be on the verge of being introduced by Representative Richard Pombo (R-CA), Chair of the House Resources Committee. Defenders got a hold of the proposed bill, and it is scary.
In the words of Jamie Rappaport Clark, former Director of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and now Executive Vice President of Defenders, the draft bill "takes a wrecking ball to the whole Endangered Species Act" by changing its mission, disabling enforcement tools, and providing extensive loopholes for corporate special interests.
How bad is this legislation? It's even worse than we feared. All of the gains we've made since the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 are at stake and accelerating extinctions would be certain. We've conducted an analysis of the draft bill prepared by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA).
Our concerns include:
-The draft bill abandons the national commitment to bringing declining species back from the brink of extinction and recovering them to the point where they no longer need the Act's protection.
-It opens a giant loophole that allow legal appeals during every step of the endangered species conservation process. Irresponsible developers, timber and mining interests and other resource exploiters would be able to tie the process into knots and avoid any meaningful implementation and enforcement.
-It allows federal agencies to ignore their responsibility to protect threatened and endangered species..
-It includes an onerous "takings" provision which requires the federal government to pay landowners for the costs of complying with the law, a terrible precedent to set with regard to environmental protections.
-The proposed bill sets the year 2015 as the expiration date for the Endangered Species Act, setting a timetable for ending protection of our endangered species!
To find out more about these great watchdogs, go to: www.saveESA.org
On another environmental topic, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR is retiring. According to www.loe.org, which is LIVING ON EARTH, a weekly radio program on many public radio stations, JUSTICE O'CONNOR has helped on several occasions to keep environmental protections in place. Go to the web site and check out this week's discussion entitled "High Stakes For The Environment". It may sound unusual to some to see Justice O'Connor highlighted in a positive manor since she did contribute to giving us the current administration, but any good point for the big E (the ENVIRONMENT), is worth noting.
One last tidbit, if you are TRULY interested in creating your own useful SOLAR designs, check out the upcoming workshops at www.irenew.org
THE NEW BOHEMIA SOLAR PROJECT INSTALLATION WORKSHOPS will be held in August. The first will be FRIDAY, SATURDAY, & SUNDAY, AUGUST 5,6 & 7. A repeat of the same will be the following weekend, AUGUST 12,13 & 14.
Check them out and make a difference in your energy consumption. Also, set aside SATURDAY & SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 & 11, to attend the 14TH ANNUAL I-RENEW CONFERENCE in HIAWATHA/LINN COUNTY, IOWA. It is a spectacular weekend of new and useful ways to better your impact on our beautiful planet. Bring your kids and skeptical friends. The same website will give you all the information you need.
Remember to CPR ….. CONSERVE/PARTICIPATE/RECYCLE
Ad Campaigns Gear Up for Judicial Fight
