Category: environment

With only five months remaining in office, the Bush Administration revealed yesterday that it would soon publish a proposal that would eliminate independent scientific reviews and undermine species protections in favor of fast-tracking federal development projects.

The Administration characterized its forthcoming proposal as only “narrow changes” to existing regulations. Unfortunately, those narrow changes are likely to have broad consequences.

Until now, the ESA has required interagency consultation between “action agencies” that build dams or highways, issue oil and gas leases or timber cutting contracts, etc., and the “conservation agencies” that have the primary responsibility for protecting endangered species (the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service).

The existing process has worked pretty well, often resulting in minor, but important, changes to proposed projects so as to avoid adverse impacts to rare plants and animals.

If the proposed regulatory revisions are adopted, the independent scrutiny provided by the conservation agencies will no longer be required.

Instead, the very agencies whose primary mission it is to oversee and promote federal development projects will decide for themselves whether their actions will have any adverse impact on rare species.

This is your chance to stand up for endangered species protections.

Email President Bush today.

Tell him you oppose the outrageous changes to weaken the ESA and that you support wildlife protections to ensure future generations will continue to enjoy America’s rich natural heritage.

Together, we will do everything we can to stand against this assault on the landmark Endangered Species Act.

Thanks for your activism and support,

Environmental Defense Fund Action Network 

As promised yesterday here is my Carbon Update.   Continue reading “Carbon Challenge Update – July”

Matt and I have been reducing the amount of meat we eat because raising and producing meat is more taxing on the environment.  We do still eat meat a couple of times a week and thanks to Burban Mom’s most recent post we will be looking into more sustainable meat.  I have been kind of lazy into changing the meat we consume because here in town we only have two major chain grocery stores (no Whole Foods, no Sprouts) and I have never seen grass fed beef at either.  Of course, I haven’t bothered with asking the butcher either, I just didn’t expect to find it.  I will have to check into it more the next time I go to the store, but if not, thanks to localharvest.org I did find a local farm that will deliver grass fed beef to your door.  How convenient is that?  It is way more meat than Matt and I would need so I would probably con some family members into eating more natural and sustainable meat in the process, an added bonus.  If you are interested in reading more on the meat industry check out this NY Times article.

 

On a side note here is a link to a new website that will help you make those small changes that really do make a big difference:

 

 

I learned about a new challenge over at Burban Mom’s Blog.  The Carbon Challenge is a way to track your carbon footprint and see how the changes you are making are actually working out.  I like to track things so this is a great challenge for me.  I understand it is probably not for everyone.  I will post my results here at the end of every month.  Feel free to join me in tracking your carbons.

Here is the file that Green with a Gun created:

carbon-account

So, you have been thinking about going green but are overwhelmed by everything you hear that you should be doing or should not be doing. Well on July 1, ‘Burban Mom is starting her new Step-a-Day Program.  Really it is three small steps a week.  Totally doable right?  If you have been thinking of going green and need a little help getting started this will be a great program for you. 

That is how long it took to dry a load of laundry outside today, less than half the time it would have taken in the dryer.