SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY |
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SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ONE BODY ONE WORLD is
the charity wing of ECA. OBOW is dedicated to providing funding
and bringing awareness about companies that share the vision
that the earth and it's inhabitants deserve a clean, safe, and
free world. OBOW is committed to spreading ideas about the pursuit
of sustainable, renewable energy and resources, environmental
protection, tolerance, choice, and freedom for all peoples. Every
year ECA contributes money through OBOW to organizations that
work towards these goals and those that enrich and protect the
lives of children, animals and the environment. We have contributed
to many such organizations. To name a few: NRDC (National Resource Defense Council)If you are interested in obtaining a full list please call our offices: 516-432-6877 To learn more about the Union of Concerned Scientists, visit their website at http://www.ucsusa.org To see other action alerts visit the UCS Action Center at http://www.ucsaction.org www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxId6Z9zMO0 Raise the volume so you can hear the song....and pay attention to all the words... WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING? Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and temperatures are rising. The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, it's already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence. The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable. We're already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitat, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing. The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years. Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level. The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade. At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles. If the warming continues, we can expect catastrophic consequences. Deaths from global warming will double in just 25 years -- to 300,000 people a year. Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide. Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense. Droughts and wildfires will occur more often. The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050. More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050. There is no doubt we can solve this problem. In fact, we have a moral obligation to do so. Small changes to your daily routine can add up to big differences in helping to stop global warming. The time to come together to solve this problem is now - TAKE ACTION. Visit www.globalwarming.org or www.climatecrisis.net for more information " STOP #23 New York, NY - America's largest city has the largest hybrid bus fleet and is pioneering the use of hybrid taxis March 1, 2006 How do you get to Carnegie Hall? In a hybrid taxi. Or you could hop on a hybrid bus. That's right, America's largest city boasts the largest hybrid bus fleet in the country, and is pioneering the use of hybrid taxis. New York City is a national leader in municipal environmental policy and one of the most energy efficient cities in the United States. And it's only going to get better. The car of choice for NYC's taxicab fleet is Ford's Crown Victoria, which generally gets only 12 miles to the gallon in Manhattan traffic. Hybrid cars can get triple the gas mileage while releasing one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions. Hybrid taxis could save the average cabdriver more than $20,000 in gas costs over five years and reduce global warming pollutants by at least 50 percent. "If you converted the entire fleet of New York City taxicabs to hybrids," says Mark Izeman, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, "it would be the equivalent of taking 24,000 cars off the road, from a global warming perspective." The auto industry is taking notice of the increased demand with the following makes and models on the market right now: 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid, 2006 Mercury Mariner Hybrid, 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid, 2006 Toyota Prius, 2006 Honda Civic hybrid, 2006 Honda Accord hybrid, and the 2006 Lexus RX 400H. Over 60% of oil in the USA is used for transportation. In NYC, smarttransportation.org lead a campaign for new legislation from the City Council, signed by the Mayor and implemented by the Taxi Commission to convert taxis to hybrid vehicles. Smarttransportation.org has lead reform in San Francisco, Chicago and NYC with many other cities and taxis drives and fleets converting to hybrid taxis and to receive federal and state incentives. According to the New York City Taxis and Limousine Commission, each New York taxi averages nearly 100,000 miles of driving annually. So, the fuel savings for drivers and operators could reach the thousands of dollars every year. That savings could enable hybrid owners to recover the premium cost of the technology within the first year on the road. The change in city policy was prompted by growing public concern over New York's air quality - ranked as the third worst among the country's cities in 2004. FEED - Food & Environment Electronic Digest - July 2006 1. Engineered hormone in milk may be linked to twinning A recent study found that women who consumed dairy products were five times more likely to give birth to twins than vegan women. The study suggested that the use of engineered bovine growth hormone/bovine somatotropin (BGH/BST) to boost milk production in dairy cows may be related to the higher level of twinning. BGH is known to increase twinning in dairy cows. In addition, the rate of human twinning is twice as high in the United States, where BGH is used, as in Britain, where BGH is banned. BGH affects twinning rate by increasing insulin-like growth factor (IGF), a protein produced in the milk of both animals and humans, that promotes ovulation and may help early-stage embryos survive. A separate study found that levels of IGF were 13 percent lower in vegan women than in women who consumed dairy products. Read a press release about the study, which was published in The Journal of Reproductive Medicine. 2. Bill to address antibiotic resistance garners support The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recently joined over 350 other organizations from around the country calling on Congress to pass the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA), a bill to ban the use of seven classes of medically important antibiotics as feed additives for livestock and poultry that are not sick. The IDSA, which represents 8,000 physicians and scientists, stated that "there is a growing body of scientific evidence that antimicrobial use in livestock contributes to the spread of resistant bacteria to humans." Read more about PAMTA. In related news, the House of Representatives passed an amendment introduced by PAMTA's lead sponsor, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), to provide one million dollars to the Food and Drug Administration to review the relationship between antibiotic use in animals and antibiotic resistance. The amendment has not yet been approved in the Senate. Learn more (pdf). 3. USDA documents reveal lax oversight of pharma crops Last year, an internal audit revealed critical failings in the USDA's oversight of field trials of crops that are genetically engineered to produce pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals. UCS recently obtained USDA documents under the Freedom of Information Act that reinforce the audit's findings. The documents concerning 2005 cultivation of pharmaceutical-producing rice in North Carolina revealed that the department failed to perform required inspections, failed to enforce conditions imposed on the company producing the rice, and failed to inspect the rice after a hurricane blew through, potentially contaminating a nearby rice breeding facility. These inadequacies support our call for a nationwide ban on the outdoor production of pharma and industrial food crops as the only way to ensure food safety and protect public health. Learn more. 4. New reasons to eat your veggies Vegetables are good for you-and for the economy too. According to a report by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, if Iowa residents ate the recommended five servings a day of fruits and vegetables for just three months out of the year, and if the extra produce were Iowa-grown, it would mean an additional $302 million in sales and 4,000 new jobs in Iowa. Read the report. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, a health insurance company called Physicians Plus is banking on the health benefits of fresh produce. This company pays people up to $200 to subscribe to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program that supplies them with produce from a local farm. Read more, or find a CSA program near you. 5. What you can do: Fight the National Uniformity for Food Act The Senate is expected to vote soon on the National Uniformity for Food Act (S. 3128), a bill that could wipe out an estimated 200 state and local food safety and labeling laws, including shellfish and milk safety laws, restaurant safety laws, and carcinogen and lead warning labels. The bill will eliminate these innovative state laws that protect consumers in favor of a "uniform" lowest common denominator of existing federal food laws. Since this dangerous bill already passed in the House, we need your help now to defeat it in the Senate. Learn more about this issue and send a letter to your senators. Please be sure to personalize the sample text and subject line so that your letter has the greatest impact. If you have already sent a letter on this issue, please call your senators to reinforce your message. Find your senators' phone numbers here. The lowdown on Global Warming and its devastating effect ... How time is running out. Rewriting The Science http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/17/60minutes/main1415985.shtml From CBS News Online Click here to read Horizon Organic's July Newsletter Subject: NRDC blocks disastrous Everglades mining scheme! I am thrilled to report a major victory in our long courtroom battle to block one of the Bush administration's most dangerous attacks on the environment: a proposed massive rock mining project in Florida's fragile Everglades. Four years ago, the administration issued permits for the first phase of this gargantuan scheme that would have bulldozed and dynamited 30 square miles of the world's most famous wetland ecosystem in order to produce a billion tons of limestone rock for use in roads and parking lots. The resulting 80-foot deep pits -- so big they'd be visible from outer space -- would have destroyed vital Everglades habitat for a variety of rare plants and animals, including the endangered wood stork. The pits also threatened to poison the drinking water of millions of Miami-Dade County residents by allowing dangerous micro-organisms to infiltrate local wells. Thanks to your financial support, NRDC went to federal court and charged the Bush administration with violating the Endangered Species Act and other environmental laws. Last week, that court ruled in our favor and delivered a stunning setback to the administration and its mining allies. In his ruling, the judge chastised the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for rushing to issue the permits at the mining industry's behest, ignoring clear evidence of environmental dangers, while misrepresenting the facts and disregarding the law. This is a tremendous victory for our natural heritage and it belongs in large part to NRDC Members like you. Not only did you fund this case, but you sent thousands of messages to Bush administration officials protesting their harmful mining scheme. That powerful outcry helped raise awareness in Florida of the serious environmental risks of this project. I want to thank you for all of your donations and efforts in this important campaign to save one of America's greatest natural treasures. Together, we have sent this White House a message loud and clear that we will not stand for the corporate-sponsored destruction of our last wild places. And, with your help, we are going to prevail in more battles to come. Sincerely yours, Frances Beinecke President Natural Resources Defense Council |
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