Dr. Greger’s Pandemic Update: August 2007 World Health Organization Calls Attention to Poultry Intensification; What Are the Odds a Pandemic Will Strike Within the Next Year?
Here’s a little holiday weekend fun for you folks — and a chance to help prod Congress into action.
The House Committee on Natural Resources is currently hosting a poll on their website asking about reform of the 1872 Mining Law, a provision that gives mining companies virtually free access to rich mineral deposits on public land with no requirement to pay royalties. And, the law allows claimholders — including companies wholly owned by foreign corporations — to buy public land outright for no more than $5 per acre, with mining given precedence over all other uses for the land. Particularly since modern mining operations can cover hundreds of acres, involve large volumes of toxic materials, and create huge amounts of waste, this is a law in desperate need of change, and we want to let the committee know that people across the country support mining law reform.
The poll currently has only a handful of responses, so let’s see how many voices we can add and make the committee members and staff take notice. Our goal — 99% support in the poll for changing the 1872 Mining Law. Vote today!
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that nearly 860 billion gallons of sewage spills into our waterways annually. Yuck.
And fortunately, as you may already know, American Rivers is leading the fight for right-to-know legislation that would notify the public of sewage spills. Phew.
But our work isn’t done.
We need your help today to expose “Flushie’s Summer Vacation!” and his “Sewage Happens” message to a larger audience…a MUCH larger audience — like the 70 million daily YouTube viewers.
Help us send Flushie up the YouTube food chain. Our goal is for Flushie to appear on the front page as a featured video, ensuring massive viewing success.
How do we do that? Well, one way we can better position Flushie to be picked up on YouTube’s front page is to ask you to:
2. Save Flushie’s Summer Vacation! as one of your “Favorite” videos
3. Rate Flushie’s Summer Vacation! now (be sure to give it a five-star rating too!)
Please, take action today to help us make Flushie’s next vacation spot the YouTube front page. Visit Flushie on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcpq506XCIg and send him on his way!
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: In Defense of Animals - takeaction [at] idausa.org
Date: Aug 30, 2007 10:40 AM
Subject: Writing Alert: Trying to Connect the Dinner Plate to Climate Change
The New York Times ran an article about the growing awareness of the effects of a meat-based diet on the environment. Please write a letter to the editor of the Times informing readers that the best thing they can do for their health, animals, and the environment is to go vegan. Send letters to letters [at] nytimes.com.
EVER since “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore has been the darling of environmentalists, but that movie hardly endeared him to the animal rights folks. According to them, the most inconvenient truth of all is that raising animals for meat contributes more to global warming than all the sport utility vehicles combined.
The biggest animal rights groups do not always overlap in their missions, but now they have coalesced around a message that eating meat is worse for the environment than driving. They and smaller groups have started advertising campaigns that try to equate vegetarianism with curbing greenhouse gases.
Some backlash against this position is inevitable, the groups acknowledge, but they do have scientific ammunition. In late November, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report stating that the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined.
Center for Biological Diversity: Kempthorne Awarded Rubber Dodo On Friday, August 24, we awarded the first annual Rubber Dodo Award to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in recognition of his one year and 90 days in office without listing a single new species as threatened or endangered. That’s a record.
Defenders of Wildlife: These Owls Need Your Help Urge officials at the Fish & Wildlife Service to scrap the current plan and reconvene the Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Team to develop a real recovery plan that benefits the spotted owl, not just the timber industry.
DawnWatch: Los Angeles Times front page on animal cruelty — 8/17/07 The article by John M. Glionna is headed, “A beastly kind of cruelty” and sub-headed, “Drive-by shooters, often youths, are killing farm animals in a growing wave of violence. The culprits may face only vandalism charges.”
