Free Republic

From: "Liberty Matters News Service" Liberty_Matters_News_Service@mail.vresp.com> Subject: FBI Nabs Seven Eco-terrorists Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2004 22:20:19 +0000 FBI Nabs Seven Eco-terrorists The FBI has rounded up seven suspects accused of a variety of terrorist acts aimed at employees of a New Jersey pharmaceutical testing company and six companies doing business with Huntingdon Life Sciences. The suspects, all in their twenties, were indicted on charges of engaging in a conspiracy to violate a federal law that bans terrorism against animal enterprises. If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Additionally, the president...

SEATTLE, May 8 — Three years ago, Mark C. Rutzick was the timber industry's top lawyer trying to overturn fish and wildlife protections that loggers viewed as overly restrictive. Back then, he outlined to his clients a new strategy for dealing with diminishing salmon runs. By counting hatchery fish along with wild salmon, the government would help the timber industry by getting salmon off the endangered species list, Mr. Rutzick wrote. Now, as a high-ranking political appointee in the Bush administration who is a legal adviser to the National Marine Fisheries Service, Mr. Rutzick is helping to shape government policy...

For decades, since the early 1980s, the entire world has been deluged with predictions of a coming "Global Warming." But there isn't a scintilla of scientific data to support these claims. Indeed, in the 1970's the same "environmentalists" were predicting a coming Ice Age. We are, in fact, in what climatologists called an "interglacial era." That is to say, we are between Ice Ages. For about 10,000 years since the last Ice Age, civilization has followed with the spread of the human race out of Africa to all parts of the globe. If that Ice Age had not ended, there...

Washington, DC, Apr 17 (OneWorld) - A major environmental group has declared a ceasefire in its three-year campaign against Citigroup, the world's largest private financial institution, after new commitments by the giant lender to adopt more responsible social and environmental policies in deciding what projects to finance. Citigroup's decision to more seriously engage one of its main critics, Rainforest Action Network (RAN), came one week after the San Francisco-based group launched a major ad campaign to persuade Citigroup credit card holders to destroy their cards to protest the company's support for projects and industries that environmentalists consider particularly harmful. The...

For 361 days, I lived high in the branches of an ancient redwood in Humboldt County, Calif., before being forcibly removed by employees of the Pacific Lumber Co., who intended -- and still intend -- to cut the tree down. During all that time my feet never touched the ground. I slept on a 4-by-8 platform, 130 feet up, that was made of recycled plywood covered by layers of tarps to protect me from rain and high coastal winds. --snip-- If I had any doubts before climbing into that tree that the natural world was conscious and alive, I do...

Very few people like the idea of shooting Bambi's mother. But there may be no better way to slow the rapid expansion of deer populations that are devastating ecosystems in many areas of the country. At least 20 million white-tailed deer are ranging the nation at the moment, a huge jump from only 500,000 in 1900, according to a recent report by Andrew C. Revkin in The Times. They plunder farm crops and alter the ecology of forests by eating the low-lying vegetation and destroying the seedlings needed for new growth. In the process, they displace many smaller animals...

<p>"Is it too late?" a Cornell undergraduate asked me as we marveled at the Red-tailed Hawk climbing the thermals over the levee bordering Southwest Park.</p> <p>"It's never too late to change a decision," I told the touring Eco-Design class. "The real issue is the fear of our government officials and the people who elected them to take a risk and try something different."</p>

Nearly one quarter of the 55 species at the heart of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan haven't been documented recently in Pima County. Only eight creatures on the county's "priority vulnerable" list are considered endangered by the federal government. And 15 of the 55 species are types of talus snail - a sexually ambiguous mollusk that may lie dormant in rock slides for more than a year. The list of 55 species - which is guiding the county's proposed wildlife preserves and land use restrictions - is made up of plants and animals that most Tucsonans will never see. Is...