Sierra Club Currents - Ten Top Park Picks Quote of Note: "This budget sends an unmistakable message to people who are concerned about our health and a clean environment -- you are not a high priority." - Sen. Boxer (D-CA) questioning EPA Administrator Steven Johnson on the agency budget proposal that includes a $400 million cut to wastewater treatment projects, a $35 million cut to air pollution monitoring and a $7 million cut for the toxic waste cleanup program. (1) Get Outside: Ten Top Park Picks (2) Victory: Court Protects Sacred Lands (3) Take Action: Wilderness Revival! (4) Take Action: Make Your Car Go Farther on a Gallon of Gas! (5) Send an Ecard: Tell Some Friends to Get Green This St. Patrick's Day (1) Get Outside: Ten Top Park Picks Tired of being cooped up for the winter? Don't despair, spring is on the way and with daylight-saving time you even have an extra hour to get outside and enjoy some sunshine. Hit the trails, explore miles of living coral reefs, tour a historic trading ship or bird watch at one of our nation's awe inspiring state parks. See a sample of Sierra Club's park picks featured in USA Today. Photo courtesy National Park Service (2) Victory:Court Protects Sacred Lands A federal court yesterday blocked a plan to make artificial snow by spraying treated sewage on the San Francisco Peaks, north of Flagstaff, Arizona, which are sacred to Native American tribes in the area. The court found that the plan would not only have desecrated a holy place, but also cited the health hazards posed by "reclaimed" artificial snow. Thirteen tribes and the Sierra Club challenged the plan, successfully fighting to protect the sacred peaks. Read the court's full decision. Find out more about the Sierra Club's environmental justice efforts in Arizona. (3) Take Action: Wilderness Revival! In the coming days your Senators and Representatives will be voting on the first wilderness bills of the 110th Congress-- the Wild Sky Wilderness Act and America's Red Rock Wilderness Act. Together these bills will protect over nine million acres of forests and canyons, saving our wilderness heritage for our children and grandchildren. Tell Congress to permanently protect wilderness areas in Washington's Wild Sky region and the Red Rock canyons of Utah! Photo courtesy National Park Service (4) Take Action: Make Your Car Go Farther on a Gallon of Gas! Today Congress introduced legislation that would dramatically increase fuel economy standards for the first time in nearly 20 years. Making our cars go farther on a gallon of gas is a critical step toward cutting our dangerous dependence on oil and curbing global warming. By putting existing fuel-saving technology to work, this bill would save consumers billions of dollars at the gas pump, prevent millions of tons of global warming pollution, and save more oil than the U.S. currently imports from the entire Persian Gulf. Tell your member of Congress to sponsor the Markey-Platts fuel economy legislation! (5) Send a E-Card: Tell Some Friends to Get Green This St. Patrick's Day While you're wearing green on St. Patrick's Day, tell some friends that there's no better time to get green! Legislation is before the House of Representatives that would require utilities to produce 20 percent of our electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. Tell some friends by sending an eCard and asking them to sign our action alert to their Congressional representative, which calls for supporting a national Renewable Energy Standard today!
|
|
Currents is the Sierra Club's weekly e-mail update providing you with facts, stories, quotes, and "take action" features. |