For immediate release
contact: Sonya Diehn, Center for Biological Diversity, 520.623.5252 x300
TUCSON GREEN
GROUPS UNITE FOR EARTHWAKE
Rally around local
and national environmental issues puts hope into grassroots activism
The Oregon Natural
Resources Council (ONRC) is touring various cities in the US to bring
light to the Bush assault on the environment. The Center for Biological
Diversity is co-sponsoring this event as they stop in Tucson this Friday.
11:30 am: concerned
citizens will meet at the corner of 4th Ave. and Congress/Toole (train
station parking lot)
12:00 noon: funeral procession to the federal building, 300 W. Congress
12:30 pm: rally/press conference for environmental protection, eulogies
from local environmentalists
We will place our own personal messages to the White House into a casket
which will tour several other cities and be delivered to the White House
in Washington, DC on Earth Day.
The Center for Biological
Diversity is one of many local environmental groups that is deeply concerned
about the environmental impacts of the Bush administration, which in addition
to recent rollbacks such as lowering the arsenic standard and suspending
the roadless rule, also presents threats to the environment more locally
in the form of off-road vehicle policies, border militarization, public
lands grazing policies, impacts on endangered species in the Southwest,
and removing protection for federal lands with Monument or Park designation
in Arizona.
"Bush's Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton has asked Governor
Hull what 'multiple uses' she envisions for National Monuments and other
protected federal lands in Arizona. This from an Interior Secretary who
has stated she believes in 'polluter's rights!' Norton has made a blatant
bid for federal/state collaboration to undue conservation on public lands
in Arizona. In a similar move, Hull is now pushing for state veto power
over County and citizen-initiated conservation measures. This has become
a government of and for special interests! The time has come for Arizona
environmentalists to unite and put forth a strong green front, in order
to preserve wilderness and wildlife habitat, biological diversity, and
clean air and water for all," says Sonya Diehn, spokesperson for
the Center for Biological Diversity.
The event begins with a solemn funeral procession down Congress Street.
Mourners for the environment will walk in a solemn procession alongside
a hearse to the Federal Building. There, speakers on issues from environmental
justice to endangered species will eulogize George W. Bush's killing of
the earth, linking local and national struggles and advancing the need
to forge new alliances. Speakers will commence at 12:30 pm. The event
should end around 1 pm.
Speakers, in order of appearance:
Susan Ash, Oregon Natural Resource Council
Kieran Suckling, Center for Biological Diversity
Carolyn Campbell, Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection
Rose Augustine, Tucsonans for a Clean Environment
Tim Lengerich, Coronado Cougar
Raul Grijalva, Pima County Board of Supervisors
Al Decker, Earth First! Journal*
Jimbo Watson, AFL-CIO*
Randy Serraglio, Southwest Alliance to Resist Militarization/SOA Watch
SW*
Scotty Johnson, Defenders of Wildlife
* = speakers not confirmed as of 4/4/01
(end)
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