Earth Justice

Dear Jack,
Earthjustice thanks you for your help in 2007.

Earthjustice e.Brief: Salmon win as Bush payback fails

http://action.earthjustice.org/ct/37_7l_K1wUzY/

This month at a glance:

· In the News: Bush vs. salmon

· In the News: Whales get reprieve from sonar

· Poll: Take our latest online poll

· Buck in Brief:
Stepping down, looking back

· Tom's Turn: Oil and water tragedy

· Your Turn: Submit comments to the mailbag

· e.Stew: Monthly highlights

Who We Are

Earthjustice is the nation's leading, non-profit law firm for the environment. To learn more about our work, visit our website.

The U.S. Navy is conducting dangerous sonar training in the waters used by endangered humpback whales to birth and nurse their young.

Donate to protect these whales today!

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"Coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, is the crack cocaine of the developing world."

--Alan Zarembo, L.A. Times reporter

Photo of anthracite coal from
Wikipedia

"It's the same pig in a different tutu, but it still can't dance."

--Earthjustice attorney Todd True, commenting in the New York Times on a new plan to protect salmon and steelhead from Northwest river dams.

Jumping salmon Salmon survive Bush payback scheme

Seven years and a million dollars later, the Bush administration has abandoned part of its strategy of gifting more access to timber interests on federal lands in the Pacific Northwest. Bush had been pushing the strategy since soon after being elected -- as payback for money Republicans got in 2000 from timber companies. But, the courts weren't as easily paid off. Earthjustice convinced the courts that proposed hillside logging would destroy critical salmon habitat. Early this month, Bush gave up.

Photo of a dolphin affected by sonar Stopping the Navy's sonar attack on humpback whales

Watch this video to appreciate why Earthjustice is trying to permanently stop sonar testing by the U.S. Navy in areas where marine mammals abound. The video shows whales reacting to sonar blasts from a U.S. Navy destroyer in Puget Sound and what happened after a similar incident in the Bahamas.

Earthjustice has been exerting legal and citizen action against similar testing in the Hawaiian Islands, where endangered humpback whales birth and nurse their young. At up to 235 decibels (a Saturn rocket blasts off at 225 decibels), the sonar testing is a massive assault on these animals. Although the Navy abruptly ended six months of planned testing less than two weeks ago, Earthjustice is seeking a permanent halt.

Since the late 1990s, the use of military sonar has been associated with whale strandings, brain hemorrhages, and death.

First, take the poll, then read how the rest of the world answered the question: Would you be willing to change your lifestyle -- including higher taxes -- to combat global warming?

Stepping Down, Looking Back: As Earthjustice Executive Director Buck Parker prepares to step down, he reflects on the organization's progress during his decade at the helm.

Buck Parker is Earthjustice's executive director.
E-mail him at buckparker@earthjustice.org.

Oil and Water Tragedy: Amid the heartache caused when a ship spewed bunker oil into San Francisco Bay, Tom Turner found something to be heartened by -- the caring shown by humans.

Tom Turner is Earthjustice's senior editor.
E-mail him at tomturner@earthjustice.org.

You've heard Tom. Let Tom hear you. Email him with comments at tomturner@earthjustice.org. Last month's readers disagreed over whether nuclear energy is a cleaner, cheaper alternative to coal-fired power generation. Read all the comments.

Lower Slate Lake, where dumping would
occur Can we kill all the fish, please?
Imagine asking the U.S. Supreme Court for permission to turn America's waterways into toxic dumps for mine tailings. That's what owners of the Kensington Mine in Alaska are threatening to do, after a federal appeals court gave final refusal to the mine's dumping scheme.

A school of herring Machine chokes on pleas to save herring
Nearly 10,000 Earthjustice supporters swamped the New England Fishery Management Council with pleas to protect herring from overfishing. Their response shut down the council's FAX machine.

Photo of the San Pedro River by Dave
Bly, NPS It's just lizard land to Chertoff
Using imperial powers to waive environmental laws, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff has cut the San Pedro River watershed in half with a steel mesh wall along the Mexican-U.S. border. It's just 'lizard habitat,' he said of an area that has more mammal species than any place on earth, next to Costa Rica. Earthjustice Executive Director Buck Parker denounces the Chertoff wall in this statement.

Photo taken in the Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monument by Don Baccus Monument needs fewer roads and rogues
Kane County -- leader of the rogue movement to impose local control over federal lands -- refuses to stop inviting illegal traffic through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, despite losing a string of court battles. A request for summary judgment filed by Earthjustice may end the rebellion.

Photo of a Bonneville Cutthroat Trout New federal agency: The U.S. Extinction Service
If left to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the last Bonneville cutthroat trout might be found in the Smithsonian next to the passenger pigeon. The Bush administration-poisoned agency was forced by an Earthjustice suit to reconsider the fish as an endangered species.

Photo of a coal power station by David
Parsons Coal has an overlooked little brother
Coal is getting all the infamy these days. Not only is it the biggest contributor to global warming, it's the nation's largest source of mercury pollution. Meanwhile, amid neither publicity nor regulations, the cement kiln industry is pumping at least 11,000 pounds of mercury into the environment every year.

Photo of a leaf by PDPhoto Thousands get green in San Francisco
The moveable eco-feast known as the Green Festival lured 36,000 visitors during its San Francisco show Nov. 9-11. The idea is to mingle a variety of people, businesses and communities interested in environmental matters. Earthjustice attracted more than 250 new supporters during the festival run.

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From all of us here at Earthjustice,
thank you for your commitment to protecting the Earth and its
treasures. With your help, we're winning.

Photo by Galen Rowell/Mountain Light Photography
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