Fw: Rainforest Action Network Monthly Panther: Indigenous Rights, Coal Activism & more!

September 7, 2007

Monthly Panther: September 2007

Rainforest Action Network

Putting Coal Before Country

Last month, RAN Rapid Responders challenged the Bush administration's

proposed expansion of mountaintop removal coal mining by sending hundreds of

letters to the editors of newspapers across the U.S. Several were published

by The New York Times, including one from RAN Executive Director Michael

Brune.

This was the latest in a series of attempts by the Bush administration to

undo environmental protections and boost Big Coal's profits.

In 2002, the Bush administration rewrote clean water regulations to allow

mining companies to dump debris from mountaintop removal mining directly

into rivers and streams.

U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., and Christopher Shays, R-Conn.,

introduced a bill last spring that would prohibit mining companies and other

industries from dumping solid industrial waste into the nation's waters. The

bill has already picked up 60 sponsors, but it needs more!

You can make a difference today by asking your representative to cosponsor

the Pallone-Shays Clean Water Protection Act, H.R. 2169.

Tell the UN to Support Indigenous Rights!

The UN General Assembly is about to vote on the UN Declaration on the Rights

of Indigenous People. The Declaration, if passed, will provide rights and

respect for Indigenous peoples' lands, languages, and cultural and spiritual

survival. RAN allies, Indigenous leaders and government representatives from

around the world have been working to pass this declaration for more than 25

years.

Today, you can take action and make a difference. Write to the ambassadors

of Canada, New Zealand and Australia and tell them to support Indigenous

rights! RAN supporters have already sent over 17,000 letters and we need to

keep the pressure up!

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