- Dear NRDC Member, As you may already know, our campaign
to protect marine mammals against deadly sonar and other man-made threats
suffered a terrible setback last week in the United States Congress.
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- Under the cynical pretext of protecting national security,
the Bush administration strong-armed the Senate Armed Services Committee
into approving the most far-reaching rollback of marine mammal protection
in the last 30 years. It exempts the U.S. military from obeying core provisions
of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.
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- Because these unprecedented exemptions are part of a
"must-pass" defense bill, they were quickly approved by both
the House and Senate, and President Bush is sure to sign the bill into
law.
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- Before I tell you what this setback will mean for marine
mammals, I want you to know one thing: we fought our hearts out to defeat
these disastrous provisions. Our legislative staff worked day and night
to get Congress the facts and win over critical swing votes. Two weeks
ago, thousands of NRDC activists in the key states of Virginia, Michigan,
Arizona and Maine joined the fray by flooding their senators' offices with
pro-marine mammal phone calls.
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- Thanks to their selfless efforts, we came awfully close
to pulling off a last- minute victory. In the end, however, we just could
not overcome a White House that was shamelessly -- and erroneously -- claiming
military necessity in the midst of wartime.
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- What do these new exemptions mean in the real world?
It will now be far easier for the U.S. military to harass and kill whales,
dolphins and other marine mammals with high-intensity sonar and underwater
explosives. The armed forces will no longer be limited to harming or killing
a "small number" of animals.
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- In another ominous change, the new law allows the military
to entirely exempt itself from all environmental review under the Marine
Mammal Protection Act. In the past, NRDC has used that process to block
destructive activities like the detonation of tons of explosives in sensitive
marine areas.
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- Finally, the military will now be allowed to destroy
the habitat of endangered birds and mammals that live on 25 million acres
of land under the Pentagon's jurisdiction.
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- The Bush administration claims that these drastic steps
are necessary because environmental laws are compromising combat readiness
for the war on terror. Baloney! Even the EPA's own administrator testified
last spring that she couldn't name a single training mission anywhere in
the country that had been delayed or canceled because of environmental
restrictions.
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- Make no mistake, this White House has cynically exploited
the war in Iraq as a convenient opportunity to try to give the Pentagon
what it has always sought: a free pass to trample our environment and carte
blanche to harass marine mammals in the course of testing its weapons and
sonar.
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- It is a telling measure of this administration's hatred
of the environment that the bill was even more destructive to marine mammals
than what the Pentagon itself had asked for!
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- The only piece of good news I can share is this: the
new exemptions are unlikely to affect the courtroom victory we won in August
when a federal judge barred the U.S. Navy from deploying its deadly LFA
sonar system across 75 percent of the world's oceans. That's because the
Bush administration violated so many different laws in approving that particular
system that even an exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act won't
get the Navy off the hook.
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- I am not going to soft-pedal last week's defeat. It is
a tragic day indeed when the White House oversees the evisceration of landmark
laws -- passed by a bipartisan majority in Congress -- that have helped
save so many of our planet's embattled populations of whales and dolphins.
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- But I would urge you to outrage and action, not despair.
Let's put this setback in perspective. Getting the military to stop injuring
and killing marine mammals is a monumental task, one that could take decades.
We have already made great strides in court, and the tides of change and
public opinion are on our side. More than 80 percent of Americans don't
think the Pentagon should be above environmental laws. If we harness that
people power, we will one day prevail.
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- In the months ahead, NRDC will be fighting in Congress
to overturn these disastrous new exemptions. We will partner with European
groups to mount a worldwide campaign of political pressure against dangerous,
high-powered sonar systems. We will pursue every opportunity to block lethal
sonar systems in the courts. And if the Bush administration does attempt
to overturn our victory against LFA sonar, we will go back to court and
fight tooth and nail to defend it.
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- Defending marine mammals on so many different fronts
will require an extraordinary amount of funding. If you would like to help
further this NRDC campaign against deadly sonar, please consider making
an online contribution. It will be put to work immediately and be deeply
appreciated. Just go to https://www.savebiogems.org/donate/lfa1103.asp
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- In the meantime, for the sake of whales and other marine
mammals around the globe, we're counting on you to stay the course with
us. We need your idealism, your energy and your activism. Thank you for
all you've done.
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- Sincerely,
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- John H. Adams President Natural Resources Defense
Council
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