Although it’s twilight for the Bush Administration, the president and his cronies aren’t savoring their final hours by propping up their cowboy boots tipping back their gallon hats while they toast each other to all of the havoc their policies have wreaked on the world. No, they’re still busy and there’s a lot of dirty, ugly stuff the Bush Administration is ramming through in its final days. We can’t lose our focus on stopping some of their final nasty 11^th hour regulations and rollbacks that will be a final Bush imprint on our air, water, public lands, wildlife and consumer policies. The Administration is being extra clever by trying to get these regulations in place by November 22^nd, which would make it even more difficult for the Obama Administration to undo them. I’ve already written about a couple of these lovely proposals, but there are 90 total, so here are some highlights along with organizations fighting these new regulations. Takepart today with the organizations listed with each item to stop Bush’s final onslaught.

1. Grand Canyon. Yes, one of our nation’s treasured goals is under assault as the current Administration has allowed uranium mining within three miles of the park. Takepart with Environmental Working Group
2. Mountaintop Mining Removal. If mining wasn’t already a highly polluting exercise to retrieve an energy source, the Bush Administration seems to want to up the ante to make it an even greater source of pollution by giving waivers to mining companies to directly dump their mountaintop waste directly into nearby rivers and streams. Takepart with the Sierra Club.
3. Power plants. Again, the Bush Administration seems to just love these pollution emitters and wants energy companies to dictate our air standards. Their proposals would allow for plants to be built near national parks and wilderness areas. And, they would like to establish a loophole so that older plants will not be required to add pollution-control technology if they increase their emissions (as currently required under the Clean Air Act). Takepart with NRDC.
4. Logging. As I already wrote, Bush and his cronies want to open up protected areas in western Oregon to logging. Takepart with the Wilderness Society.
5. Endangered Species Act. The Administration would remove the required approval by scientists about the impact of a policy or law on an endangered species. Takepart today with the National Wildlife Federation.
6. Truck Drivers. A dangerous new regulation would allow them to drive 10% more without a break, placing themselves and other vehicles on the road at increased risk. Takepart with OMB Watch.
7. Endangered Species Act. This historic Act could be weakened if the Administration allows for changes to the normal approval process by not requiring the executive branch to consult with an independent agency to determine whether a project could endanger a species. Takepart today with the National Wildlife Federation.
8. Individuals with Disabilities. Bush is proposing to water down the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act by weakening accessibility standards and reducing access enforcement. This would amount to discrimination against individuals with disabilities. Takepart with United Cerebal Palsy.
9. Medicaid benefits to be reduced. The amount of out-patient hospital services provided to low-income people through Medicaid’s would be cut. Takepart with OMB Watch.
10. Family Planning. The Administration is threatening to cut funding to health facilities and organizations that refuse to hire people who refuse to provide birth control. The proposal could define some types of birth control as abortion. takepart with the National Women’s Law Center.

(photo by Storm Crypt)

OpalMirror

As I’ve already written several times, the Bush Administration is trying to ram through as many final new “regulations” and roll-backs of existing environmental, health and consumer protections. While we are all weary from eight years of assaults by Bush and his cronies, we must put up a final fight in his remaining days to stop these dangerous policies that are the President’s final gifts to his friends in mining, timber, oil and gas industries.

The Wilderness Society needs your help now to stop the Administration’s new proposal to open up thousands of acres of ancient forests in western Oregon to logging. This is yet another gift to the timber industry, which has already handsomely benefited by this Administration’s policies. Logging in this area threatens endangered species, biodiversity and is slap in the face to the American public that demonstrated their support for protection of wilderness areas in the election last week.

Takepart today to say no to the Bush Administration’s proposed logging by signing the Wilderness Society’s petition today.

After three years of declining deforestation rates, Brazilian authorities announced that logging rates in the Amazon have increased between two to three times since last year. Incra, the Brazilian government’s land reform agency, now faces criminal charges for allegedly handing over rain forest to logging companies and creating fake settlements to avoid environmental regulations.

Photo: Paulo Santos/Reuters

The Amazon represents more than half of the planet’s remaining rainforest, and serves a vital role of absorbing carbon from the atmosphere.   Deforestation of the rainforest not only contributes to climate change, but leads to significant losses of biodiversity and threatens indigenous tribes, some of which have not had contact with the outside world.

takepart by helping the World Wildlife Fund protect the rainforest and keep an eye on Brazil’s proposed plan to end deforestation by 2015.

Related:

Inconvenient Truth of the Day

Amazon Rainforest Deforestation is Rising for First Time in Three Years

De-Forestation: Less Eco-Friendly Than You’

Cowboys to the Rainforest Rescue

Norway, which it turns out is not in South America, is the first country to donate to an Amazon preservation fund that will give money to Brazil to save its rainforest.   According to the Associated Press via MSNBC, Norway pledged $1 billion to the fund, paid by 2015, assuming that Brazil reduces deforestation.

The hope is that $21 billion will be raised that will all go to Brazil so that the country may immediately work “to protect nature reserves, to persuade loggers and farmers to stop destroying trees and to finance scientific and technological projects.“  Says Noways Prime Minster Jens Stoltenberg

‘Efforts against deforestation may give us the largest, quickest and cheapest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Brazilian efforts against deforestation are therefore of vital importance if we shall succeed in our campaign against global warming.’

Seems to make sense, no?  This year, Norway will give $21 million to Brazil, next year $210 million, and will keep releasing money according to some sort of metric based on how well Brazil is doing on combating deforestation.

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We discussed the roadless rule here at takepart a few weeks back, and the litigation surrounding it.   The state of Idaho, having no use to wait around and have the courts decide what’s going to happen to the 9.3 million acres of forest that the original rule protected, went ahead and reached a compromise with the federal government that will leave most of that forestland protected.

The New York Times calls the truce an unlikely one, in that Idaho is one of the most conservative states in the nation, and was not too thrilled with being told by the Clinton government what they could and couldn’t do with its forests.   In fact, Idaho was the first state that sued to block the roadless rule from taking effect.   However, with the support of hunters, fishermen, and some environmental groups, a deal was made.

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Last week, we told you that photographs were taken of a tribe of reclusive people native to the Peruvian/Brazilian forests.   On the heels of that, the Peruvian government has announced it will take action to protect the tribes and stop loggers from encroaching on the land the tribes inhabit.   From the BBC:

Authorities in Peru’s Amazon state of Madre de Dios now say they will stop illegal loggers who travel deep into the forest in search of tropical hardwoods.

They are often the first people to encounter the tribes.

Aside from destroying the tribes’ homes, the loggers also can bring diseases fatal to the tribespeople - even something as simple as the common cold can kill.

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For the first time ever, a tribe indigenous to the forests on the border of Brazil and Peru has been photographed. The photos were taken by aircraft, and the native people are shown firing arrows at the plane. The expedition was led by José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles, Jr., an expert on native affairs in Brazil. Though the number of native people seems strong, Meirelles has a warning against those that would destroy the ecosystem the tribe resides in. From the UK’s Daily Mail:

Logging is driving uncontacted tribes over the border and could lead to conflict with the estimated five hundred uncontacted Indians already living on the Brazilian side.

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