Editor's Note--July 14,
2005 Chuck Willer, one of the signers of this letter, has requested
that the following explanatory note be attached:
"I signed on to the anti-Gore letter early in the campaign as a move to pressure the Gore campaign to improve its environmental position. Soon thereafter, many of us who signed the letter came out in support of Gore. The letter was organized by Tim Hermach of the Native Forest Council and did not represent but a moment in the flow of the campaign." |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 21, 2000
9:00 AM
CONTACT: Environmentalists Against Gore
Moisha Blechman 212.869.1630
David Brower
415.788.3666
Lee Christie
541.386.8891
Ronnie Cummins
218.226.4164
Janet Fout
304.522.0246
Dan Hamburg
707.467.0329
Tim Hermach
541.688.2600
Denise Joines
206.286.1235 x12
Tracy Katelman
707.629.3599
Bryony Schwan
406.543.3747
Jeffrey St Clair 503.657.5295
Brian Vincent
530.265.3506
Environmental Leaders Announce The Formation of
Environmentalists Against Gore
WASHINGTON
- July 21 -
Sixty-one environmental leaders from 18 states announced today the
formation of ENVIRONMENTALISTS AGAINST GORE, and urged people who care
about protecting America's environment to listen to their conscience and
vote for anyone but Democratic candidate Al Gore.
"Gore is getting the endorsement of some national environmental groups only because they are so afraid of George Bush, and so intimidated by the Gore campaign's where-else-can-you-go attitude," said Tim Hermach, one of the organizers of Environmentalists Against Gore.
"Vice President Gore has a long record of making campaign promises about protecting America's natural heritage and then breaking his promise every time one of his political supporters wants to do something that would damage or destroy our forests, rivers, and streams, oceans, even our National Parks," Hermach added.
"If George W. Bush wins the election, then at least we could expect the national environmental community to really fight for tougher pollution enforcement and genuine protection of our living life-support system," said David Brower, another founder of Environmentalists Against Gore. "From Alaska to the Everglades, New Jersey to California, the Vice President talks about being an environmentalist, but he's sold out American citizens, workers, taxpayers and the environment more times than we can count. He sides with clear-cutting timber barons, big sugar, big oil and real estate speculators over forests and watersheds, parks and wildlife. And we lose those fights because when Al Gore sells out, national environmental groups come to his aide, claiming the problem lies somewhere else, with Congress or federal agencies. But we all know the buck stops at the White House."
All the environmental leaders supporting the organization released this statement:
"Many of our members support Ralph Nader, and others believe that even having George W. Bush in the White House, under the eye of an energized environmental community, will lead to better protection for nature and wildlife than we can expect from Al Gore. We've seen Gore turn his back on the people of Appalachia while mountains and streams are illegally destroyed by strip miners. We've seen Gore talk about the importance of preserving our forest heritage while refusing to stop cutting it down. He is increasing the logging of what's left of our publicly owned native and old-growth national forests and monuments as we speak. Al Gore talks about the catastrophic threat of global warming, yet shows very little leadership to stop it. We've seen him talk about fighting sprawl while he's promoting sleazy real estate deals that would move industrial jobs away from urban Miami onto farmland between two National Parks. We've heard him lecture the world about preserving nature in the tropics when he is encouraging the big sugar plantations to continue polluting our own Everglades. We've read candidate Gore's press releases about protecting our beaches from offshore drilling, and then watched Vice President Gore say it is none of his business if his own Administration promotes offshore drilling in Florida, California, and Alaska. We've watched Gore pretend not to know about it when his own White House staff and the federal agencies turn the Endangered Species Act into a tool for extinction. And just this week we watched Al Gore refuse to advocate breaching of four Snake River dams rejecting the recommendations of scientists and federal agencies. We believe that people, nature and wildlife, in the United States and in the world, will be better protected if we return to an honest national debate about the role of the environment in our lives and economy, instead of the cynical orchestrated charade Vice President Gore is engaged in."
1) We can't get what we want by voting for what we don't want.
2) We can't win by submitting to fear of imagined Republican actions.
3) We can no longer condone or reward the long and established record
of dishonesty, smoke & mirrors, shell games and betrayal.
4) We can't get good & honest people to run if we repeatedly fail
to
support the ones that do.
5) We demand Fair & Open Debates - and honest politicians.
6) We demand that People and the Public Interest receive the importance
now given to corporate cash and political supporters.
7) We realize that false friends can often do more harm than known
adversaries.
Voting Our Principles & Hopes, Not Our Fears.
(affiliations listed for identification purposes only)
Cindy Allsbrooks - TX - Headwaters & NFC - (409) 653-3982
Patricia Awerbuch - PA - Independent - (610) 359-1931
Florence Barone - MI - Michigan Land Use Institute - (231) 882-4723
Caroline Bauman - Lincoln County Chapter, Oregon LCV - (541)
547-3075
Moisha Blechman - NYC Sierra Club - (212) 869-1630
John Borowski - OR - Environmental Science Teacher - (541) 929.5224
David Brower - CA - Sierra Club, Earth Island - (415) 788-3666
Jasper Carlton - CO - Biodiversity Legal Foundation - (303) 926-7606
Lee Christie - OR - Audubon and The Nature Conservancy - (541)
386-8891
Patricia Clary - CA - Californians for Alternatives to Toxics
- (707) 822-8497
Michael Colby - VT - Food & Water - (802) 563-3300
Carla Connally - AL - Wild South - (256) 974-6166
Karen Coulter - OR - Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project - (541)
468-2028
Ronnie Cummins - MN - Pure Food Campaign - (218) 226.4164
Murray Dailey - MI - North Woods Wilderness Recovery - (906)
225-1938
David Dilworth - CA - Friends of the Forest - (831) 624.6500
Michael Donnelly - OR - Friends of the Breitenbush Cascades -
(503) 581-2616
Melanie Duchin - AK - Greenpeace - (907) 278-2502
Ray Fenner - MN - Superior Wilderness Action Network - (651)
646-6277
Sara Folger - MT - Predator Conservation Alliance - (406)
587-3389
Janet Fout - OH - Huntington Tri-State Audubon - (304) 522-0246
Rick Gorman - NY - Native Forest Council Regional - (718) 530-5663
Dan Hamburg - CA - ex-Congressman - Voice of the Environment
- (707) 467-0329
Tim Hermach - OR - Native Forest Council - (541) 688-2600 or
(541) 953-5293
Carol Hoover - AK/CA - EYAK Preservation Council - (415) 454-2436
Deborah Howes - OR - Oregon Wildlife Federation - (503) 286-3634
Denise Joines - WA - One Northwest - (206) 286.1235 x12
Tracy Katelman - CA - EcoForester/Activist - (707) 629-3599
Joe Keating - OR -Chapter Chair of Sierra Club's Oregon Chapter,(503)
234-2613
Don Kegley - United Steelworkers of America - (509)-483-9126
Steve Kelly - MT - Friends of the Wild Swan - (406) 586-0180
Jeff Kessler - WY - Biodiversity Associates - (307) 742-7978
Leeona Klippstein - CA - Spirit of the Sage Council - (626) 744-9932
Cecelia Lanman - CA - EPIC Emeritus - (707) 923.3614
Martin Litton - CA - Grand Canyon Dories - (415) 851-2616
Gwen Marshall - OH - Protect Biodiversity & Public Lands
- (513) 761-6978
Emily Miggins - CA - Founder, Re-Think Paper - (510) 636-9019
David Orr - UT - Glen Canyon Action Network - (435) 259-1063
David Ortman - WA - past Director,NW Office,Friends of the Earth
(206) 789-6136
Karen Picket - CA - Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters - (510)
548-3113
Pat Rasmussen - WA - Leavenworth Audubon Adopt-a-Forest - (509)
548-7640
Ruby Lee Rose - CA - Planet, Mind, Soul, Spirit - (415) 868-2767
Susan Schock - NM - Gila Watch - (505) 388-2854
Bryony Schwan - MT - Women's Voices for the Earth - (406) 543-3747
Lewis Seiler - CA - V.O.T.E. Action Committee - (415) 435-2522
Dr. Fraser Shilling, - CA - Sierra Club - (530) 753-1678.
Scott Silver - OR - Wild Wilderness - (541) 385-5261
Robin Smith - OH - ex-EPA, NFC Office - (614) 538-9344
Jeff St Clair - OR - CounterPunch - (503) 657-5295
Alan Stein - CA - Fmr Director, Salmon Bay Protective Assn. -
(707) 937-4700
Kent Stromsmoe - CA - Forestry Monitoring Project - (925) 372-8619
Charlotte Talberth - NM - Levinson Foundation - (505) 995-8802
Dr. Bron Taylor - WI - Univ of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Professor -
(920) 424-7183
Larry Tuttle - OR - Center for Environmental Equity - (503) 221-1683
Ray Vaughan - AL - Environmentalists FOR Nader - (334) 265-6529
Brian Vincent - CA - American Lands Alliance - (530) 265-3506
Paul Watson - WA - Sea Shepherds - (360) 370-5500
Meca Wawona - CA - New Growth Forestry - (707) 462-2114
Tom Weis - CO - Greenfire - (303) 245.8178
Chuck Willer - OR - Coast Range Association - (541) 758.0255
Margaret Hays Young - NY - NYC Sierra Club - (718) 789-0038
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