|
| Planet Turns Ten 1 2 3 4 5 | |
 |
< Rough Riders: With summer and fall come appropriations bills in Congress and more opportunities for Republican leaders to attach anti-environmental riders under cover of darkness. The worst are defeated, but not all. (OCTOBER 1998) |
 |
< ‘Most Effective’: In 1998, a survey by the Aspen Institute of congressional members and federal officials finds the Sierra Club to be the most effective group at influencing federal environmental policy. As Club Conservation Director Bruce Hamilton writes in The Planet, “Our political leaders may not love us, but they respect us. This dog bites. Congratulations to all of you for helping to make us the most effective environmental group in our nation’s capital.” (NOVEMBER 1998) |
 |
< Threatened National Treasures: The Planet excerpts "SPARE America’s Wildlands," a Club report released in April 1999 focusing on six endangered national treasures and 52 special wild places closer to home. The six treasures: Utah wilderness, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Everglades, the Maine Woods, the Sierra Nevada, and the Northern Rockies. (MAY 1999) |
 |
< To Find Out How Not to Raise Pigs: A ten-member delegation of Polish farm leaders, ecologists, and reporters visits five U.S. states to find out how we handle huge hog farms—Smithfield Foods, the largest U.S. hog producer has just purchased a share of Poland’s pork industry. The Poles are stunned by what they see, and vow to block Smithfield from getting established in Poland. (NOVEMBER 1999) |
 |
< Wild Forest Legacy: 1999’s biggest victory comes late in the year, when the Clinton administration announces its plan to protect nearly 60 million acres of roadless wildlands in the national forests. The Club lauds the initiative’s boldness and breadth; timber industry lobbyists immediately attempt to stop or weaken it. The Club’s forest activists roll up their sleeves and help collect, over the next year, more than a million comments in favor of the plan. The Planet publishes color photos for the first time. (DECEMBER 1999) |
 |
< Teamsters Love Turtles, Turtles Love Teamsters: A nascent coalition of labor, environmental, and human-rights activists, church groups, students, and others comes of age in Seattle. Tens of thousands of protestors take to the streets to oppose the World Trade Organization. Among them is a crowd of Teamsters and demonstrators dressed as sea turtles, who strike up a call-and-response chant: “Teamsters love turtles,” then “Turtles love Teamsters.” (The weakening of U.S. laws protecting endangered sea turtles is one of the most oft-cited examples of how the WTO threatened domestic laws.) (JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2000) |
 |
< More Monuments: President Clinton starts his last year in office by designating three new national monuments, then in February, he announces plans for a Giant Sequoia National Monument in California’s Sierra Nevada. Protecting the sequoia forest ecosystem has been one of the top goals of the Club for a century, since John Muir advocated it in 1911 in “My First Summer in the Sierra.” (APRIL 2000) |
 |
< Defending the Defenders: Officials from the Goldman Environmental Foundation, the Sierra Club, and Amnesty International present the Goldman Prize to forest activist Rodolfo Montiel in a Mexican jail. He was arrested and imprisoned for protesting clearcutting of old-growth forests near his hometown. He is released in 2002. (JUNE 2000) |
 |
< Seeking Environmental Justice: Planet editor Jenny Coyle travels to rural Mississippi, goes to church, and sees first-hand how Club organizers John McCown and Louie Miller are bringing blacks and whites together to fight massive hog operations. By 2000, the Club’s Environmental Justice Program is working in dozens of communities, including Detroit, Memphis, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. (NOVEMBER 2000) |
 |
< Here Comes W: While the election/selection of George W. Bush and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate do not bode well, at least we’re strong and prepared. We’ve been here before—we stopped Gingrich and company in 1995-96. Of course, despite our worst fears, we don’t really anticipate how broad and sweeping the the Bush administration’s anti-environmental attacks will be. (JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2001) |
| The Bush administration's vision for the environmental becomes clearer, and dirtier, in 2001 and later... | |
Up to Top