Sierra Club Currents - Sierra Students Walk for a Clean Energy Future Volume VI, #75 Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Quote of Note:
"With one permit, this company and this state are undoing years of work to keep pollution out of our Great Lakes."
-- Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) condemning the decision allowing BP to dump toxic mercury into Lake Michigan.
(1) Take Action: Call for Clean Energy! (2) Take Action: Combat Illegal Timber Trade! (3) Sierra Students: Walking for a Cleaner Future (4) Mercury: BP, Permission Granted
(1) Take Action: Call for Clean Energy!
There are only a few days left before Congress will decide whether to take America forward or continue our dependence on dirty fossil fuels. Your Representative has the opportunity to vote in favor of two important pieces of legislation that can help curb global warming and create jobs- a renewable energy standard and an increase in fuel efficiency standards.
Use our action center to call your Representative and urge them to support putting America on the path toward a clean energy future!
Photo courtesy NREL
(2) Take Action Combat Illegal Timber Trade!
Illegal logging is the first step in a devastating cycle of forest habitat loss, animal poaching, and carbon emissions. Often occurring in indigenous reserves or community lands, illegal logging creates an atmosphere ripe for corruption and human rights abuses. Illegal logging is not the domain of petty criminals, but of criminal networks that systematically rob nations of their natural heritage for private gain. Join your voice to those of the Sierra Club, the United Steelworkers, the American Forest and Paper Association, the Hardwood Federation, the Environmental Investigation Agency and others.
Tell your Senator to support the Combat Illegal Logging Act!
(3) Sierra Students:Walking for a Cleaner Future
Union members, students, activists and concerned citizens are joining together to put global-warming solutions in the spotlight as they march across Iowa and New Hampshire later this week. The marches highlight the desire of those outside Washington to start implementing real energy solutions that can not only help fight global warming, but also create jobs and boost the economy.
See what else students are doing to ReEnergizeUS.
(4) Mercury: BP, Permission Granted
Oil giant BP will be allowed to continue dumping hazardous mercury waste into Lake Michigan under a new permit approved by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management last week. The permit allows BP to dump more than twice the recommended limit of mercury into the lake each year. Continued dumping of this toxic metal poses serious health risks, especially to women and children, who are most at risk from eating mercury contaminated fish.
Find out how much mercury is in your body and what you can do to reduce it!
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