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  • Boreal Forest Campaign

    CLIMATE ALERT:

    Bush’s NAFTA Expansion Is Contributing to Global Warming!

     

    Many people know that NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, was bad for our economy—but did you know that it was bad for our environment, too? And now Congress and the Bush administration are making the problem worse…

     

    Congressional Democrats are conspiring with the Bush administration to pass four NAFTA-style free trade agreements -- with Peru, Panama, South Korea, and Colombia.  Endangered forests ecosystems like the Amazon are at risk as a direct result. The Bush administration and the Democratic leadership in Congress and claiming these trade agreements will be good for the environment—but they are dead wrong.

     


    Free trade agreements contribute to global warming in a big way:

    - Allow for a heavy corporate push for the globalization of a US-style meat centered diet, increasing livestock emissions- the single biggest source for global warming.
    - Lead to increased use of “factory farm” style agriculture. Factory farms are energy intensive consume vast quantities of fossil fuels.

    - Shift global agriculture towards industrial scale production and fossil fuel consuming farm machinery, while driving sustainable “low-tech” farmers out of business.
    - Contribute to deforestation by destroying the economy for local farmers, who lose their lands and proceed to cut down forests for fuel and new farmland (documented by Oxfam International and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). 25% of global warming can be attributed to deforestation.

    - Challenge environmental selective purchasing agreements (e.g. bills that require governments to buy recycled products and prohibit purchasing of wood from endangered forests) under trade agreement procurement rules.
    - Provide vast investor protections for natural resources extractive industries, increasing access and lowering costs for corporate extraction of fossil fuels and additionally contributing to deforestation through land clearing for mines and oil rigs and pipelines.
    - Contribute to a shift towards globalization of consumption, undermining efforts ecological friendly “buy local” campaigns and contributing to vast consumption of fossil fuels in transportation of products to market via trucks, airplanes, and ships.
    - Contribute to deforestation through road construction for bringing commodities to market (e.g. Plan Puebla Panama, the “NAFTA Superhighway.”)

    WHAT YOU CAN DO:

     

    • Write, call, fax, and email your Senators and US House Representatives and demand that they publicly oppose free trade agreements with Peru, Panama, Colombia, and South Korea. Let them know that despite recent changes, these agreements will still contribute to global warming and endanger the survival of life on Earth. You can find out who represents you and their contact information at http://tinyurl.com/fk5tm
    • Volunteer or intern with Global Justice for Animals' campaign to stop anti-environmental,anti-animal free trade agreements, through lobbying, protest, community education, and the mass media. To find out how you can help, call (347) 293-2217 email info@freetradekillsanimals.org
    • Make a donation to the campaign. For details, visit at http://freetradekillsanimals.org/?page=Donation.

    or by mail at Wetlands Activism Collective, PO Box 344, NY, NY 10108.

    YOU CAN HELP END GLOBAL WARMING!

     

    Global Justice for Animals and the Environment is a project of:
    Wetlands Activism Collective
    Phone: (718) 218-4523
    Fax: (501) 633-34761
    activism @ wetlands-preserve.org