Armchair Activist: Inferior Secretary Kempthorne

The presumably outgoing Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has decided to out-do James Watt. He recently announced changes which undermine the Endangered Species Act.

According to the Center For Biological Diversity the new regulations would:
- Exempt thousands of federal activities from review under the Endangered Species Act;
- Eliminate checks and balances of independent oversight;
- Limit which effects can be considered harmful;
- Prevent consideration of a project's contribution to global warming;
- Set an inadequate 60-day deadline for wildlife experts to evaluate a project in the instances when they are invited to participate -- or else the project gets an automatic green light;
- Enable large-scale projects to go unreviewed by dividing them into hundreds of small projects.

Express your righteous indignation by taking action.

Armchair Activist: The Reply

Let's say you followed the Armchair Activist's advice and clicked away at the action alert at a website for a cause you care about. You just need to care a little about your issue, because it is so easy to contact the overlords. As promised, they will hear your pleas.

I contacted the President and Vice President of the United States about something a while back. I don't remember what exactly. It may have been that drilling in Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). It may may have been me asking for the release of Pol Brennan (OK, it wasn't that, because I only heard about his unjust incarceration today). But it was something important which I care deeply about. I'm sure of it.

But as you see, the responses are rather generic. But do not be disillusioned. Someone out there keeps track of your emails and each email is a vote. Remember if one person sends a letter there must be a million who feel the same way and have not done son. And if one sends an email, there must be at least a hundred ... errr... ten thousand who feel the same way. It's a vote. It's a poll. It's you petitioning your representatives to do something.

With no further ado, here's the reply from George W. Bush to my email message on an important topic:

From: comments@whitehouse.gov
To:
Sent: Wed 4/30/2008 3:45 PM
Subject:

On behalf of President Bush, thank you for your correspondence.

We appreciate hearing your views and welcome your suggestions.

Due to the large volume of e-mail received, the White House cannot respond to every message.

Thank you again for taking the time to write.

As you can see, W took a little less time to write as I did, and he didn't even bother to put a subject on his email. And here's what I received from Vice President Cheney:

From: vice_president@whitehouse.gov
To:
Sent: Wed 4/30/2008 3:45 PM
Subject:


Thank you for e-mailing Vice President Cheney. Your comments, suggestions and concerns are important to him. Unfortunately, because of the large volume of e-mail received, the Vice President cannot personally respond to each message. However, members of the Vice President's staff consider and report citizen ideas and concerns. Please visit the White House web site for the most up-to-date information on Presidential initiatives, current events, and topics of interest to you.

Thank you again for taking the time to write.

Eerily familiar and even sent at the same exact minute and also without a subject. Who indeed is pulling the strings over there at the White House?

Armchair Activist

This is an alert from the Organic Consumers Association:

According to the Chicago Tribune, the White House is attempting to force famine stricken countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, to adopt Genetically Engineered crops tied to a $770 million aid package.

It is just one of the alerts that concern those of you who care what you ingest. The OCA sends me a bulletin called Organic Bytes every few weeks. It's full of useful information, most of it disturbing how the powers that be are taking aim at what you eat and what you are (since you are what you eat). Sign up for Organic Bytes by going to the OCA and entering your email. Or catch up on some of the latest actions you can take. As always, you just enter your info once, and from then on you just click away and send an email to the likes of the FDA or the Department of Agribusiness. You know the drill. Just sit back and be an Armchair Activist.

Armchair Activist

The Armchair Activist strikes again!

Defenders of Wildlife have their own action alerts.

They send out an email every week or so, and you simply click on the "Alert", fill out the form with your information, and voice your opinion on, for example, the poaching of black bears. It seems that there is a black market in the gallbladders of bears for traditional Asian medicine. Support the Bear Protection Act: H.R. 5534 would make this black market illegal on the federal level.

Apparently:

Poachers target hibernating bears in their dens and even track radio-collared bears that are part of scientific studies. And law enforcement agents report grisly findings: bear carcasses left in the woods with only the gallbladder and other parts removed.

Check out http://defenders.org and click on Take Action. Fill out the form and become an Armchair Activist. Indicate you want their e-news, and they will alert you to new issues.

Armchair Activist

I find it easy now to do what once was inconvenient. I can become an activist. I can write letters to governors, congressmen, presidents, kings, you name it. I can even have them written for me by scribes I have never met. I ask them to support legislation, to save the whales or the wolves, to free those who have been unjustly arrested.

It's easy to do, and here's the secret: use the internet.

OK, you probably knew this already.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) runs a program called Save Biogems which mobilizes internet denizens to act to protect natural resources and ecosystems. In their own words:

In response to this escalating threat, NRDC launched the BioGems Initiative in 2001 to help ensure that the most exceptional and imperiled wild places in the Western Hemisphere -- our BioGems -- remain wild for the sake of a sustainable planet. Each year, the BioGems Initiative mobilizes hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens to take action via the Internet in defense of these irreplaceable natural treasures and the wildlife that depends on them for survival. Bringing the full power of citizen activism to bear on government officials and corporations, our online activists -- known as BioGems Defenders -- are making extraordinary strides.

So if you want to protect Patagonia (or even just learn about Patagonia) which is on the south tip of the Americas, you can send an email to President Michelle Bachelet of Chile and ask for her support. To do so, go to http://www.savebiogems.org/ click on 'Pick A Biogem', go to Patagonia, and pick 'Click Here to Save This Biogem'. Fill out the form, and your letter is off to President Bachelet. Biogems will save your settings for you, so you'll only have to enter your email address from then on. Every week or so, you may get notified about another important part of nature which needs some help. Occasionally you may get an email back from the person who receives your plea. Unfortunately, it will probably be even more of a form letter than what you sent and not directly address your topic. Rarely, you will get a paper reply in the mail from your government representative.

Armchair Tip: Go one-by-one and select each the Biogems on their site and take action. Skim the text. No need to study up, no need to read the whole letter.

That's the easy life as the Armchair Activist.