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From
the September 2003 issue of Resource Roundup…
“If
You Build it, We Will Burn It”
Officials found a banner with the “build it and burn
it” slogan next to a torched apartment building in San Diego, California over
the weekend. The banner included the initials of the Earth Liberation Front
(ELF), leading them to believe the radical environmental group was responsible
for destruction of the five-story building that caused more than $20 million in
damage. An e-mail from the group indicated they did not know if any of their
teams had caused the blaze, but a statement read; “The banner at the site
reading ‘You build it – we burn it – ELF’ is a legitimate claim of
responsibility by the Earth Liberation Front.”
ELF’s goals are to remove every vestige of civilization that offends
its loose-knit group of wing nuts and calls itself “an international
underground organization that uses direct action in the form of economic
sabotage to stop the destruction of the natural environment.” Since 1997, ELF
has claimed responsibility for fires and other acts of destruction that have
caused $50 million in damages to luxury homes, sport utility vehicles and ski
lodges, including the $12 million lodge in Vail, Colorado in 1998. Capt. Jeff
Carle of the San Diego Fire Department said if the eco-terrorists wanted to save
the local environment by destroying the apartment, they messed up badly since
more trees would be cut down to rebuild the structure.
(www.libertymatters.org)
The Sterling Environmental Institute has developed a series of
billboards, including the one shown above, to help raise public awareness of
problems caused by the Endangered Species Act and non-management of resources.
To help fund their placement, visit www.waterforthewest.org or contact The
Sterling Environmental Institute, P.O. Box 268, Albuquerque, NM 87103-0268,
(505) 243-4682.
Look
What Uncle Sam Bought For You
The United States Forest Service has just spent $6.57
million taxpayer dollars to buy development rights on 105 acres along U.S.
Highway 26-287 near Teton Pass, Wyoming. “That viewshed is just awesome,”
exclaimed Kniffy Hamilton, Forest Supervisor for the Bridger-Teton National
Forest. Government officials seem to think $62,590 per acre is quite a bargain,
well below the appraised value of the land, they claim. Sen. Craig Thomas (R-WY)
secured $.3.5 million to help purchase the easement in 2001 and came up with
another $2.8 million earlier this year allowing the Service to buy the easement
without having to share it with the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance. The
property will remain privately owned and the public will not be allowed access,
even though the easement was purchased with taxpayers’ money. “I think the
public gains a lot of value in having the easement there because it won’t be
developed,” rationalized Hamilton. It is not clear just what “value” the
public will gain from land they can’t use and which can’t be developed.
Senator Thomas’s staff did not respond to requests for additional information
about the funding for the easement purchase.
(Source:
www.libertymatters.org)
“PC”
Environmentalism Doomed Columbia
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) announced in July that a piece of foam that came loose from the space
shuttle Columbia was the cause of the fatal crash last February 1, killing all
seven astronauts. Experts now believe the foam is the “metaphorical smoking
gun [that] should be painted green.” During the Clinton-Gore administration,
NASA was under pressure from EPA head Carol Browner to refrain from using Freon
in its thermal-insulating foam. The fluorocarbon caused damage to the earth’s
ozone layer, according the powerful green lobby. As a result, NASA substituted a
politically-correct foam that did not hold up as well under extreme
temperatures. Hannes Hacker, an aerospace engineer, said that the inferior foam
was “at least a contributing factor, if not the major factor. The risk of a
piece of debris falling off and causing damage to the space shuttle’s
thermal-protection system was [more than] 10 times greater with the new material
than with the old material.” NASA mechanical systems engineer, Greg Katnik,
wrote in the 1997 Field Journal report that “there had been significant
damage to the [ceramic] tiles” of the first shuttle launches that used the new
material. John Berlau, author of the informative “Lost in Space” article for
Insight Magazine, writes, “NASA, as well as the EPA officials who
pressed it to stop using Freon, may have a lot to answer for.”
(www.libertymatters.org)
(We hear almost nothing about it, but it was also speculated that the
reason that the Twin Towers burned up so quickly was that during their
construction, the use of asbestos was stopped, giving the steel girders little
protection from heat. -Ed.)
Santa Barbara Co. Residents
Protest Salamander
More than 150 residents of Santa Barbara County jammed
a U.S. Fish and Wildlife hearing to offer comments about reclassifying the
California tiger salamander from endangered to threatened. Many of those in
attendance expressed anger and frustration over the strict rules that have
stopped or delayed construction of needed facilities.
USF&W halted the construction of a new animal
shelter days before it was scheduled to begin because they were worried the
salamanders might be harmed. A warehouse to store food for the FoodBank of Santa
Barbara County cannot be built until the salamander issues are resolved. Fourth
District Supervisor Joni Gray said, “Tiger salamanders can survive drag
strips, airplanes and chicken ranches. They can certainly survive some kind of
development…”
“You really didn’t give a damn about preservation
of the species,” said rancher Fred Chamberlain. “You want to control
everyone’s land.”
“You’re holding this community hostage,” said
land-use consultant Laurie Tamura. Many people were angry that Fish and Wildlife
pushed the listing through in 2000 with very little public input and what Fifth
District Supervisor, Joe Centeno, termed “questionable scientific data.”
Environmental Defense Center people argued the salamander should remain
endangered, “that no scientific basis exists for the reclassification.”
(www.libertymatters.org)
It's
the Spending, Stupid
“Sixty-eight percent of the widening of the deficit
in fiscal year 2003 to date is the result of spending. Annual spending increases
from 2000 to 2003 more than TRIPLES the amount of annual spending increases from
1992 to 2000. The average American must now work 87 days in 2003 to pay for
federal spending, an increase of 10 days compared to 2000. The number of
individual pork projects has increased 48 percent over the past two years.”
(Americans for Tax Reform;
found at www.chuckmuth.com)
(We had hoped that Republicans would dramatically lower the spending of
our money. Instead, Republican strategy seems to be to weaken Democrats by
co-opting their programs and funding them. One more try -- let’s give
Republicans a large majority in Congress next election, and if they don’t
develop spines, let’s vote them all out and keep doing so until we find people
who realize that it isn’t ‘government’ money, it’s OUR money.
And how many billions of dollars have we spent on ‘reintroducing’
species, fighting wildfires, and formulating unnecessary regulations, excessive
environmental analyses, and anti-human forest management plans, and how many
billions have we lost by letting our resource of trees burn and stopping
development projects? -Ed.)
Recipe
for Poverty
“Environmental justice means action to repair the
environment in all communities wherever they may be. It means an end to playing
favorites when it comes to Americans’ health and their very lives... All
Americans, regardless of their color or income, deserve clean air, pure water,
land that is safe to live on, food that is safe to eat.”
Democratic presidential
candidate John Kerry on his plans for “environmental empowerment zones.”
(‘Environmental
justice’ means that factories that pollute -- as all factories must, to lesser
or greater extents -- could not be put in low-income or minority areas. That
would be ‘unjust’, since such factories would not be put in affluent
neighborhoods. However, the greatest health threat in this country is not
pollution -- it’s poverty, the lack of money for adequate medical care and a
varied diet with fresh fruits and vegetables. ‘Environmental justice’ would
deny decent wages to poverty-stricken areas by keeping industry out of them.
Perhaps Kerry should ask people in poor neighborhoods whether they would rather
keep their air absolutely pure or put food that they earned on the table. -Ed.)
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