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Stop Sprawl
Sprawl Activists 'Choose Choo-Choos'
Challenge to Sprawl Campaign Committee: Peter Tyler (chair), Neha Bhatt, Melody Flowers, Tim Frank, Shannon Harps, John Holtzclaw, Cynthia Hoyle, Brett Hulsey, Richard Klein, Greg Leroy, Bill Myers, David Sullivan
2002 Highlights: "Smart Choices, Less Traffic," a map taking a critical look at 49 transportation projects, generated more than 200 media hits, including 18 radio spots, 10 national wire stories, and coverage by 30 TV stations. Campaign led more than 15 "traffic buster" workshops and "tours de transportation."
Telling Statistic: Utah's TRAX public transit system, which opened in December 1999, now has 20,000 daily riders, 41 percent of whom are new to transit.
Best Sign for the Future: Despite a disappointing election, smart-growth and transportation-choice measures fared well. Voters in 79 communities in 22 states passed measures to create $2.6 billion in public funding to protect land for parks and open space. Of 44 transportation measures voted on, 24 passed.
If I had 10 seconds of TV air time, I would say: "Americans have become trapped in their cars-every year they are stuck in traffic for 443 hours, the equivalent of an 11-week vacation. It's time to demand an increase in transportation choices, more funding for public transit and alternatives to driving."
-Peter Tyler
How to Support the Sprawl Campaign: Urge public officials to balance transportation funding so highways don't get it all and make more funding available for public transit, bike/walk facilities, and high-speed rail.
www.sierraclub.org/sprawl
Clean Water
Forging New Alliances for Clean Water
Clean Water Campaign Committee: Hank Graddy (chair), Chris Bedford,
Roy Hengerson, Ed Hopkins, Laura Kresbach, Ken Midkiff, Louie Miller, Don Mills, Dick Mochow, Debbie Neustadt
2002 Highlights: Made alliances in areas where no Sierra Club staffer had gone before-the Texas Panhandle, Idaho's Snake River Plain, and Clovis/Roswell, New Mexico. Filed lawsuit against Tyson Foods. Released "Rapsheet on Animal Factories."
Campaign goals for 2003: Defend Clean Water Act from Bush administration policy changes. Protect streams and wetlands from destruction and pollution. Stop concentrated animal feeding operations from locating where they're not wanted.
Best Sign for the Future: A rapidly-growing demand by consumers for meats raised by small farmers-without antibiotics or growth hormones and out in God's green world (rather than locked up in small spaces in large numbers).
If we had 10 seconds of TV air time, we would say: "We've made great progress in cleaning up our waters, but we can't stop until all our lakes and rivers are safe for fishing and swimming. We can't allow the Bush administration to stop enforcing the protections for streams and wetlands that have been in place for 30 years."
-Robin Mann, Sierra Club leader
If we had 20 new gung-ho volunteers, we could...
"We will have 20 new volunteers-right now they're living in blissful ignorance on their farms, but Seaboard or Smithfield has targeted their area for a highly-intrusive, environmentally and economically destructive concentrated animal feeding operation. These folks are without doubt NIMBYs-but if you can't protect your own backyard, how the hell can you protect the Arctic Refuge? These people will demonstrate to political hacks that clean air and clean water do matter to their constituents."
-Ken Midkiff, campaign director
www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater
www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater/rapsheet
Global Warming and Clean Energy
Nuns, Sheriffs Join Fight to Curb Global Warming
Global Warming and Clean Energy Program Committee: Paul Craig (chair), Dan Becker, Steve Crowley, Rich Ferguson, Ned Ford, Fred Huette, Tanya Imola, Bill Magavern, Ann Mesnikoff, Ann Vanek
2002 Highlight: California passed a groundbreaking measure to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from passenger vehicles.
Defining Event: Senate rejection of an increase in fuel-economy standards for cars and light trucks.
Best Sign for the Future: Increased demand for hybrids from nuns and sheriffs. In Missouri, with the help of organizer Jill Miller, the sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet have purchased five Priuses and plan to purchase an additional 50 hybrid vehicles in the coming years. In Florida, partly due to the efforts of Club organizer Darden Rice, county sheriffs in Martin, Lee, Marion, Broward, and Polk counties purchased 25 hybrid vehicles for parking enforcement and other duties.
Campaign goals for 2003: Continue to work to curb global warming and broaden focus to developing a comprehensive national energy strategy built around improving automobile fuel economy and dramatically expanding energy efficiency and renewable energy.
If I had 10 seconds of TV air time, I would say: "Energy efficiency has added more energy capacity to the U.S. economy over the past 30 years than all fossil fuel, nuclear, and renewable energy resources combined."
-Ned Ford, ohio volunteer
www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming
www.sierraclub.org/energy
Wildlands
Wildlands Protected in Maine, Nevada, Colorado, California; Arctic Spared
Wildlands Campaign Committee: Mark Pearson (chair), Scott Anaya, Bill Arthur, Len Broberg, Alan Carlton, Clayton Daughenbaugh, Carole Haas, Barbara Lange, Mark Lawler, Dexter Perkins, Melinda Pierce
2002 Highlights: Alaska: 54 senators voted against drilling in Arctic Refuge.
Nevada: Gained protection for 452,000 acres of wilderness.
Maine: Key link in 100-Mile Wilderness campaign acquired next to Baxter State Park.
Utah: Activist groups in 25 states working to protect wild Utah.
California: 56,000 acres of wilderness added to areas near Big Sur.
Colorado: Protected James Peak.
If I had one wish: "A sane energy policy that saves America's greatest wildlife sanctuaries like the Arctic Refuge coastal plain and Montana's Rocky Mountain Front from the ravages of oil and gas development, and places our country on the path of renewable energy."
-Dexter perkins, north dakota volunteer
Best Sign for the Future: "We're working together with other groups and forming effective coalitions."
-Marge Sill, Nevada volunteer
If I had 10 seconds of TV air time, I would say: "Help us protect America's wildlands, which belong to all Americans. The Bush administration and its allies in the oil, timber, and mining industries want to dismantle the laws that protect the land we love."
-Bob Jordan, Utah volunteer
www.sierraclub.org/wildlands
Forest Protection and Restoration
Fighting Fire With Forest Protections
Forest Protection and Restoration Campaign Committee: Clyde Hanson (chair), Bryan Bird, Sheila Bosworth, Sean Cosgrove, Trevor Fitzgibbon, Connie Hanson, Gerald Neff, Dave Muhly, Rene Voss, Bernie Zaleha
Campaign goals for 2003: Protect and restore national forests by ending commercial logging on federal public lands in the United States. Seek to protect communities from fire and defend against attempts to use concern about wildfires to undermine basic forest protections and public participation.
2002 Highlights: In April, 221 scientists signed a letter urging President Bush to end commercial logging of our national forests and renew the Forest Service's original vision of forest protection. The scientists, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dr. Edward O. Wilson, Dr. Anne Ehrlich of Stanford, and Dr. Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, stressed the benefits of forest protection to the economy, water quality, wildlife, and recreation.
Telling Statistics: Annual volume of timber logged from national forests in 2001: 3.2 billion board feet. Volume in 2002: 1.4 billion board feet. Co-sponsors of National Forest Protection and Restoration Act when the Sierra Club launched End Commercial Logging Campaign in 1999: 36. Co-sponsors at end of 2000: 72. Co-sponsors at end of 2002: 113.
If I had 10 seconds of TV air time, I would say: "National forests are now being logged and tamed as tree farms, foreign to wildlife and people, and
prone to catastrophic fire. Join us in stopping commercial logging in our national forests."
-Clyde Hanson, campaign chair
www.sierraclub.org/logging
Trade, Human Rights Programs Looking Beyond Borders
Human Rights and the Environment/Responsible Trade Program Committee: Jim Mays (chair), Kathleen Casey, Stephen Mills, Sam Parry, Chris Rembold, Cathy Rose, David Scott, Dan Seligman, Libby Tart, Craig Volland, Ginny Yingling
Responsible Trade
Defining Event of 2002: Fast-track trade negotiating authority prevailed by three vote margin, but the Sierra Club shined a spotlight on NAFTA's "corporate lawsuits," which empower global corporations to file suits that undermine environmental protections.
Campaign Goals for 2003: Promote environmentally responsible trade policies that allow countries to promote a higher quality of life for all, maintain high environmental and health standards, establish and enforce environmental rights, and give Congress and the public a strong voice in trade policymaking. Look at how global trade agreements, like allowing Mexican trucks to drive on U.S. highways, affect states.
Best media coverage: In the PBS documentary "Trading Democracy," Bill Moyers explained the perils of NAFTA's corporate lawsuits to a broad television audience.
Best Sign for the Future: Immediately after the 2002 elections, the Responsible Trade Campaign joined with the Sierra Student Coalition to train 110 new activists at workshops in Boston and San Francisco.
If I had 10 seconds of TV air time, i would say: "The Bush administration is pursuing trade deals that give global corporations new powers to harm our environment. Congress needs to hold the administration accountable for safe, clean, and fair trade."
-Dan Seligman, responsible Trade program
How to Support the responsible trade program: Ask for our new tool kit to help build a grassroots responsible trade campaign in your state.
www.sierraclub.org/trade
Human Rights and the Environment
Campaign goals for 2003: Defend environmental/forest defenders. Hold the Bush administration accountable for promoting corporate rights over human rights and environmental protections. Hold companies and foreign governments accountable for human rights and environmental abuses.
Defining events of 2002: Welcomed liberated Mexican environmentalist Rodolfo Montiel Flores to the United States for a four-city tour. Joined book tour in Montana and Wyoming with Ken Wiwa, son of slain Nigerian environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa. Sent International Program Director Stephen Mills to Johannesburg, South Africa, for the Earth Summit.
Best sign for the future: Growing interest in corporate accountability for American companies operating overseas.
If I had one wish, It would be: "Elevate protections for the environment and for environmentalists as top U.S. foreign policy goals."
-Sam Parry, International Program
If I had 10 seconds of TV air time, I would say: "Corporate rights should not be elevated over the rights of people to speak out on behalf of their own environment. The Bush administration should change its foreign policy so that we are creating more good will, not more ill will."
-Sam Parry, International Program
Promising development: The Club's Beyond the Borders program is providing grants and technical expertise to community groups in Mexican border towns suffering from unchecked pollution from maquiladoras.
www.sierraclub.org/human-rights
Global Population and Environment
Family Planning Fervor
Global Population and the Environment Program Committee: Ned Grossnickle (chair), Karen Gaia Pitts, James Hufnagel, Joan Jones Holtz, Laura Kelnhofer, Chris Kennedy, George Klein, Kirk Koepsel, Annette Souder, Ron Weisen
defining event: President Bush cut $34 million of U.S. aid to the United Nations Population Fund for family planning. Club members and population activists nationwide responded with outrage.
Campaign Goals for 2003: Slow global population growth by promoting voluntary family planning and comprehensive reproductive health services and encourage individuals to live in ways that reduce natural-resource consumption.
HOW to help the campaign: "Make your voices heard locally about the connections between population and the environment. Talk with your friends and family, write letters to your local papers, and contact your decision-makers regularly."
-Sarah Fairchild, Global Population and Environment Program
If I had 10 seconds of TV air time, i would say: "Slowing global population growth is the best long-term environmental initiative we can support. Providing universal access to voluntary family planning takes us one step closer toward a sustainable environmental future."
-Annette Souder, Global Population and Environment Program
www.sierraclub.org/population
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